Rouble dives as Russian stock market suffers its steepest ever decline

Rouble dives to record low as Russian stock market suffers its steepest ever decline


Roman Abramovich saw more than £300million slashed from his fortune yesterday as firms exposed to Russia bore the brunt of the stock market sell-off in London.

Shares in FTSE 100 steelmaker Evraz – where the billionaire holds a near-29 per cent stake – tumbled another 30 per cent after Vladimir Putin ordered a full-blown invasion of Ukraine. 

The latest slump cost the 55-year-old oligarch £312million.

Currency crash: The Russian rouble fell to a record low after Vladimir Putin unleashed his deadly assault on Ukraine

And it took losses for the year so far to 72 per cent, reducing the value of Abramovich’s stake by more than £1.8billion to £715million.

Abramovich, who also owns Chelsea FC, is the largest shareholder in Evraz, which is based in London but has most of its operations in Russia.

Evraz is just one of a number of stocks with links to Russia to have been hammered this year as investors pull out amid fears that sanctions could hit business.

Fellow FTSE 100 blue-chip Polymetal International was down 38 per cent while in the FTSE 250 Ferrexpo sank more than 42 per cent and Petropavlovsk 27 per cent. 

A number of major Russian companies have secondary listings in London and do not feature in the main stock market indices. 

London-listed shares of Russia’s two biggest companies by market value, Sberbank and Gazprom, fell 72 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

‘At this point in time, people are saying “get me out and get me out at any price”,’ said Luis Saenz, at Russian investment company Sinara. 

‘The vast majority of people are expecting the next round of sanctions to be impactful on their ability to invest in Russian stocks.’

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