For those unable to view tweets, this observation was tweeted by Joshua Yaffa as he shared a video of a Russian investment expert on Russian television:
This is where we’re at: a Russian investment expert pulls out a bottle on live television to toast the end of the country’s capital markets and says he’s going back to working as a dress-up Santa Claus.
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The financial website Marketwatch noted this and added some context.
The viral moment comes as Russian markets have now been closed for four straight days after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. This represents its longest stock market pause since 1998, according to Bloomberg.
On Wednesday, Equity index provider MSCI Inc. called Russia’s equity markets “uninvestable” as the U.S. and other western countries impose harsh sanctions against the country.
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Large Russian companies like Gazprom, Lukoil, and Sberbank are now penny stocks as Russian companies collapse in London. Sberbank, which had assets of over $500 billion during parts of 2021, has a current stock price of $0.05 on the London Stock Exchange.
Penny stocks are typically stocks stuck under $5 per share (used to be $1, so ”penny”) and they are usually traded less than other stocks. The decrease in trading volume can make them less profitable for markets’ middle men to gain any commission or fee. If that continues as a price gets lower, they may be delisted and no longer traded on an exchange like NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). Very serious consequences for a major company to descend so low.