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To: Steve Smith who wrote (14926)	8/27/1998 9:58:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Russian share market hits record low Reuters Story - August 27, 1998 20:26 %RU %STX %NEWS %EMRG %FRX %DIP %POL %TRD %CEN %ECI %GVD %EEU %EU %EEC %.ME .RRC1 EESR.RTS V%REUTER P%RTR By Peter Henderson MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Russia's shares market, once the high flying global leader, plunged 17 percent on Thursday to its lowest recorded level. Fears of a rouble meltdown and rumours that President Boris Yeltsin was ready to step down, denied by the Kremlin, left the the RTS1-Interfax at 63.20, about one tenth of its record high, marked less than a year ago. Russia's young bourse rose over 100 percent last year by major indexes, making it the world emerging market leader, according to World Bank affiliate International Finance Corporation. But now confidence in Russia's shares has sunk, along with faith in the economy. The central bank suspended foreign exchange trade of the rouble on the main Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) for the rest of the week on Thursday, issuing an unchanged and artificial official rate of 7.86 roubles per dollar for Friday, the third day in a row. Dollars were offered for 9.5 roubles each on MICEX before the central bank ended trade, and there is widespread confusion where the level should be since the central bank has stopped selling its dollars, and is stifling free trade. "The main problem is that there is just a political vacuum here," said Martin Diggle, director of Brunswick Warburg, one of Moscow's largest brokerages, referring to widespread concern that officials have no coherent anti-crisis plan. The Asian crisis swept into Russia late last October, the beginning of a prolonged market slide and economic problems that the government initially blamed on world panic. But Russia has weathered the storm badly, and the few traders left active in the market said on Thursday Russia had only its own policies to blame for consequences including the day's fall. Reuters broad composite share index fell 14 percent to 50.24. Months of plunging prices left traders unimpressed with the new low, in part because investors have been fleeing for months. "When it comes down to it, all this isn't very interesting, since there isn't any market," said Andrei Galperin, chief of trade with domestic clients at Moscow brokerage Rinaco Plus. Many investors have been essentially stuck with their shares since there are no buyers. Even at its heyday, when turnover was 20 times current levels, sales of lots of shares considered minor in the West could move the entire market. Only $5 million in official trade was registered on Thursday on the Russian Trading System, an over-the-counter style market which accounts for the bulk of the country's shares trade. Trade stopped twice during the day as volatile price falls triggered circuit breakers. The most widely traded share on the market, national power utility UES , which controls most of Russia's local utilities, touched a low of two cents on Thursday and ended with bids to pay only 2.2 cents per share, down 35 percent from Wednesday. UES shares had seen a high of 47 cents in July 1997