Russia's Stock Exchange Suffers Historic Collapse After Ukraine Invasion

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered panic in the country's markets, wiping tens of billions of dollars off the value of its biggest companies and plunging its currency, the ruble, to a record low against the dollar.

The order by Russian President Vladimir Putin for a military operation in Ukraine is expected to be followed by tough sanctions against Russia and the markets reacted accordingly on Thursday morning.

At one point, the ruble was trading at 85 to the dollar, down 4 percent after earlier hitting a new record low of 89.60. prompting Russia's central bank to say it would intervene in the currency market and provide extra liquidity.

The Moscow stock exchange, the MOEX index, plunged by 45 percent on Thursday while the dollar-denominated RTS index slumped more than 40 percent, CNN Business reported.

By 12:15 p.m. local time (4:15 a.m. ET) the crash had wiped $75 billion off the value of Russia's biggest firms with shares in the country's largest lender Sberbank at one stage losing 57 percent of their value.

Energy giant Rosneft, in which BP owns a 19.75 percent stake, plunged as much as 58 percent.

The MOEX stock index was trading roughly 29 percent lower just after 1:30 p.m. local time (5:15 a.m. ET) which would make it its worst session since 2016, according to Reuters.

There was a knock-on effect across Europe and steep falls were seen in markets, with the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index down 2.5 percent and Germany's Dax index falling by 3.5. percent.

With Russia the second biggest exporter of crude oil, and the world's largest natural gas exporter, world energy markets are bracing themselves for considerable fallout from Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.

Brent crude futures rose nearly 9 percent to trade at $105.36 a barrel at around 5.40 a.m. ET, which is their highest level in more than seven years.

Meanwhile, U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed over 8.2 percent to trade at $99.67, CNBC reported. Natural gas prices went up 4.1 percent while spot gold, traditionally seen as a safe haven asset, climbed 3 percent.

U.S. stock futures also fell sharply early sending indexes off 2 percent as the military aggression caused unease on Wall Street.

Dow futures fell by 837 points, or 2.5 percent, while futures tied to the S&P 500 slumped by the same amount. Nasdaq 100 futures also went down, by 3 percent, CNBC reported.

Update 02/24/22, 7:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include additional information.