Street protests in Moscow are to blame for Russia’s stock exchanges plummeting “faster than any other major equity market in the world over the last two weeks,” according to the New York Times.
Russian securities peaked the day after the Dec. 4 Duma elections and fell as the protests began. The Micex index had dropped 11 percent by Dec. 12, compared to a six percent decline for other emerging markets.
Businesses are now compelled to “ask questions that never really occurred to them before,” according to equity strategist Andrew Risk, including assessing how political instability would affect companies. Adds the Times:
Foreign investors, who drive the market here, have been grumbling for years about the same problems of pervasive corruption, judicial fraud and political stasis that [have] angered the protesters.
