Live updates: Russian shares slump as all trading resumes

Russian shares have slumped as its stock market resumed trading of all companies after a month-long halt following the invasion of Ukraine.

The benchmark MOEX index slid 2.2 per cent on Monday after the Moscow Exchange reopened for all of its several hundred listed companies, but with restrictions still in place to limit volatility.

The last full trading session in Moscow was on February 25, a day after the index tumbled by a third when President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Prices whipsawed last week when the exchange tentatively reopened for two days of limited trading, with investors allowed to trade only 33 of the MOEX index's 50 companies.

Some restrictions remained in place on Monday to prevent another big sell-off.

The daily session is shortened to four hours and there is a ban on short-selling, which essentially involves betting on stock prices to go down. Foreigners also are unable to sell shares until Friday.

___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: — Ukraine could declare neutrality to secure peace, Zelenskyy says — Holocaust survivors flee from Ukraine to Germany for safety — Ukrainian welders turn donated vehicles into army transport — Ukraine war threatens food supplies in fragile Arab world — The Oscars have moment of silence, and a plea, for Ukraine — My personal tragedy': Ukrainians brace for an attack on Odesa OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: Copenhagen (Denmark) — Danish brewery group Carlsberg on Monday said it had decided to pull out of Russia, stressing that it was ''the right thing to do in the current environment”.

The announcement came hours after its competitor, Dutch brewing giant Heineken, said it was doing the same.

The Copenhagen-based Carlsberg on Monday said it “will have no presence in Russia''.

The company's business in Russia will no longer be included in the Danish brewer's revenue and operating profit, and the business “will be treated as an asset held for sale until completion of the disposal”.

In 2021, Carlsberg reported revenue and operating profit in Russia of 6.5 billion kroner (USD959 million) and 682 million kroner (USD101 million) respectively.

The Danish brewer generates around 10 per cent of its sales in Russia, where it operates several breweries and has about 8,400 staff which would be laid off.

Heineken said earlier on Monday that it was seeking an “orderly transfer of our business to a new owner in full compliance with international and local laws”.

Heineken will continue to pay its 1,800 staff in Russia through the end of the year.

The company said it will not profit from the sale of its Russian operations and expects to take a 400 million-euro (USD438 million) charge as a result.

___ Moscow -- Leading independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which is edited by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, said it was suspending operations after receiving warnings from Russian authorities.

The newspaper reported being warned by Roskomnadzor, the state communications regulator.

“After this we are stopping the release of the newspaper on the website, on (social) networks and on paper -- until the end of the special operation on the territory of Ukraine,” the newspaper said in a statement on Monday.

Russia strictly limits how media can describe events in Ukraine, which it labels a “special military operation”.

Several other Russian media outlets have already opted for suspending operations rather than face heavy restrictions on what they can report, and the Kremlin has also blocked multiple foreign news outlets.

___ Ljubljana (Slovenia), Mar 28 — Slovenia says it has reinstated a diplomatic representative in Kyiv and reopened the country's embassy in Ukraine.

The ministry said Slovenia's embassy in Kyiv reopened on Monday after the arrival of the interim charge d'affaires Bostjan Lesjak.

Slovenia's ambassador to Ukraine remains in Rzeszow, a town on the Polish-Ukrainian border.

Slovenia's move comes after Prime Minister Janez Jansa urged European Union countries to restore their presence in Kyiv in support for Ukraine.

Jansa visited Kyiv this month along with the prime ministers of Poland and the Czech Republic.

He said on Twitter on Monday that “we are back”, and added that “the Slovenian and European flags flutter again in front of the Slovenian Embassy in Kyiv”.

Slovenia's Foreign Ministry said that Lesjak said upon arrival that the city was deserted, and that alarms and detonations could be heard in the distance.

___ Lviv (Ukraine) — Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne has quoted the mayor of Mariupol as saying that around 160,000 people remain in the besieged port city, and that a “humanitarian catastrophe” would ensue if more evacuations are not possible.

Vadym Boychenko on Monday said Russian forces were preventing civilians from evacuating from the city and had been turning back some who tried to make it out.

The city, which had a pre-war population of more than 400,000, has seen some of the worst conditions since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Russian forces have pounded the city, and scores of civilians have been unable to escape, with no access to essentials and cut off from communication with the shelling of cell, radio and TV towers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)