The London Stock Exchange has suspended trade in Russian-linked companies. Largest lender Sberbank as well as energy giant Gazprom are among the 27 companies in which trading has temporarily stopped. Other companies in the list include Lukoil, Polyus and EN+. Earlier, on Friday the exchange had suspended a subsidiary of VTB, the second largest bank in Russia.

On Thursday, David Schwimmer told CNBC that the following steps had been taken in London listings:
Russian listings were removed from the FTSE Russell Index.
Russian listed securities (27) were suspended by the London Stock Exchange.

He said that their “World-Check business” was actively updating its data base 24X7 as the list with the numbers of individuals against whom sanctions were put was increasing. He added that it was something that they were doing “across the business” as they actively worked with “regulators to impose those sanctions.”

Almost all Russian companies that were listed in London had lost a huge amount of their value at the time of the announcement of the suspension on Thursday. On Wednesday, Russian companies had the following values:

Sherbank was down 99.72 percent year-to-date to trade for one penny.
Gazprom fell by 93.71 percent.
Lukoil slid by 99.2 percent.
Polyus decreased by 95.58 percent
Rosneft fell by 92.52 percent
EN+ declined by 20.52 percent.

Russian markets in the country have also faced large slides by staying mostly closed for the fourth day in a row, on Thursday. Earlier, there was a suspension of stocks and derivates trading as selling reached great heights; so the central bank suspended trading activity in Russia.

London has been a favorite trading hub for Russian oligarchs and businesses. However, the London Stock Exchange reported that its operations in Russia and Ukraine accounted for less than one percent of its total revenue in its earnings report, on Thursday.

Sanctions across industries including trade, media, sports, tech and entertainment are increasing as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. When and how it will end, nobody knows, as yet. But, it is hoped that the invasion will end soon as so many lives have been lost. The world economies that had been slowly recovering from a two-year pandemic, are once again seeing high inflation mainly due to the rise in oil and gas prices.

(Photo: spatuletail)