Ukraine’s state stock market regulator on Thursday said it had decided to stop the circulation of all securities in the country, except for operations necessary for the central bank’s monetary policy and the finance ministry’s public debt servicing.
The central bank has banned foreign currency purchases on the interbank market and fixed the official hryvnia exchange rate on Feb. 24, Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said on Thursday, as Ukrainian assets suffered after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
INVESTORS RUSH FOR SAFE-HAVENS
Investors dumped the Russian currency and rushed into safe-havens. Riskier currencies such as the Australian dollar that move in tandem with investor sentiment also skidded.
Volatility across foreign exchange markets soared, with one commonly followed measure hitting its highest since December 2020.
MUFG analyst Lee Hardman said risk-off sentiment would dominate in the near-term favouring further US dollar, yen and Swiss franc strength.
EUROPEAN CURRENCIES
In contrast, risks remain heavily tilted to the downside for the rouble and other European currencies which are more sensitive to negative spillovers from military action in Ukraine, he said.
The rouble weakened to as low as 89.98 per dollar. The US currency was last up 7 per cent against the Russian currency, with selling pressure building again as European markets opened.
EURO SLIPS
The euro fell as much as 0.84 per cent to $1.1209 EUR=EBS, the lowest level since January 31. The Swiss franc soared to its highest since 2015 versus the euro at 1.029 EURCHF=EBS before falling back. The euro was last down 0.3 per cent at 1.0352 francs.
The U.S. dollar, another safe-haven currency, initially rose, with the index as much as 0.60 per cent to 96.762 for the first time since January 31, before it gave up some of those gains.
Moves in the Japanese yen were not as dramatic, with the currency last up 0.2 per cent at 114.74. The Australian dollar AUD=D3 dropped as much as 0.90 per cent to $0.7167 and the New Zealand dollar NZD=D3 slid as much as 1 per cent to $0.6706.
The situation certainly looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better, and that means the commodity currencies can weaken, said Joseph Capurso, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
UKRAINE STOCK MARKET CLOSED
Ukraine’s state stock market regulator on Thursday said it had decided to stop the circulation of all securities in the country, except for operations necessary for the central bank’s monetary policy and the finance ministry’s public debt servicing.
The central bank has banned foreign currency purchases on the interbank market and fixed the official hryvnia exchange rate on February 24, Governor Kyrylo Shevchenko said on Thursday, as Ukrainian assets suffered after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
