Cbank: Moscow Exchange to trade shares of 33 firms from Thursday

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- The central bank will restart trading in the shares of 33 companies from the MOEX Russia Index on the Moscow Exchange on Thursday without short trading, the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday.

Trading will be open from 9.50 a.m. through 2.00 p.m. Moscow time. Trading on the derivatives market for the MOEX Russia Index and in some shares from the index will be held from 10.00 a.m. through 2.00 p.m. in the usual regime. For the other instruments, the trading regime will remain the same as compared to Wednesday.

The central bank plans to disclose the trading regime of the Moscow Exchange for the following days later.

On Tuesday, the National Clearing Center, a unit of the Moscow Exchange, banned short sales for the 33 securities out of the 43 that comprise the MOEX Russia Index.

The list of securities included the ordinary and preferred shares of top bank Sberbank and the shares of oil companies Surgutneftegas, Tatneft, Rosneft, and Lukoil, the preferred shares of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, the shares of natural gas producers Gazprom and Novatek, diamond mining giant ALROSA, and metals companies Severstal, Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), UC RUSAL, and Norilsk Nickel.

The central bank suspended trading on the securities market of the Moscow Exchange on February 28 due to the volatile geopolitical situation.

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