Russian stock market, crushed by war, will partially reopen

NEW YORK (AP) — Russia plans to reopen its stock market for limited trading on Thursday, nearly one month after shares plunged and the exchange was shut down following the invasion of Ukraine.

There will be heavy restrictions on trading intended to prevent the kind of massive selloff that took place on Feb. 24 in anticipation of crushing financial and economic sanctions from Western nations.

Trading will be allowed in 33 of the 50 companies that are part of the country's benchmark MOEX index, including air carrier Aeroflot, state-owned gas producer Gazprom and the oil company Rosneft, according to the central bank announcement about the reopening.

Stocks last traded in Moscow on Feb. 25. A day earlier the MOEX sank 33% after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

When Moscow’s market reopens, trading will be limited, and investors' true sentiment could be difficult to judge.

The country has banned short-selling, in which investors essentially bet on stock prices to go down. And foreign shareholders will be unable to sell shares — a restriction Russia has put in place to counter Western sanctions against its financial system and the ruble, which has been sharply devalued.

Moscow's stock exchange is tiny, with a market capitalization of about $773 billion at the end of last year, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. That is dwarfed by the New York Stock Exchange, where the total of all equities is roughly $28 trillion.

The average exposure by a U.S. investor through a mutual fund or retirement account to Russia is exceedingly small, according to Ben Johnson, director of global ETF research at Morningstar.

“If someone is holding a traditional 60% stock, 40% bond portfolio matched to a global index, their exposure to Russia would be...