(6 Oct 2008)
1. Wide of city street
2. Mid of people walking along
3. Wide exterior tilt down of Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX)
5. Close up of sign above entrance
6. Wide interior of the MICEX trading floor
7. Close up of a trader looking at a computer
8. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Alexei Gerasyuk, MICEX Spokesman:
"To a large extent, what is happening on the Russian market is connected with the situation on the world markets. The Asian market dropped rather low during the previous day of trading, the main European indices are dropping and so are the American indices. Everything depends now on the overall world situation."
9. Wide of trading floor
10. SOUNDBITE: (Russian) Alexei Gerasyuk, MICEX Spokesman:
"There are many investors who are closing their positions. This doesn't mean they simply take the money out because they don't like shares of Russian companies. This is happening for other reasons. This happens when a company, for instance an investment bank, experiences difficulties with cash to pay debt or service loans. So they start selling shares mostly on developing markets, including Russia."
11. Mid of city street
12. SOUNDBITE: (Russia) Dmitry (no surname given), Industrial Manager, vox pop,:
"I think everybody will be affected. Any financial crisis tells the state of the economy, and inflation, at least, is going to go up for sure."
13. Wide of city street
14. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vox pop, Nina Georgievna, Pensioner, vox pop:
"My family will hardly be affected. My husband and I are pensioners and I think things cannot get any worse than now."
15. Wide of city street
STORYLINE:
Trading on both of Russia's stock exchanges was suspended on Monday after shares fell more than 15 percent on the back of falling oil prices and deepening fears about the global economy despite the passage of a 700 (b) billion dollar US bank bailout.
Trading on MICEX, where most trading takes place, was shut down at 1:35 pm local time (0935GMT) for one hour after shares dropped by 15.4 percent to 781.8 points.
The benchmark RTS, where trading was halted at 2:05 pm (1005GMT) local time for an hour, tumbled to its lowest point since August 2005, falling by 14.3 percent to drop below the 1,000-point mark at 917.8 points.
Russia's stock market in recent years has boomed amid high prices for oil and natural gas but the market began falling sharply in midsummer amid concerns about government interference with businesses, and the drop accelerated as the global economic crisis intensified.
Oil prices, the backbone of Russia's economy, have been sharply down in recent days, dropping to 90 US dollars a barrel, and investors have also been spooked by August's five-day war between Russia and Georgia.
In September, growing financial turmoil in the United States sent the Russian stock markets into their biggest downward spiral since 1998. The MICEX lost 25 percent in just three days.
Regulators have shut down the markets on several occasions in an effort to stem the decline.
The government has also offered financial support to the stock markets, and a raft of relief measures to the banking sector, where liquidity is tight and confidence between banks at rock-bottom, leading to a seizure of interbank lending activity.
The measures offered only short-term support to the stock markets, however, and buyers are still scarce on the market.
Between July and mid-September, UralSib analysts estimate investors have pulled out more than 50 (b) billion US dollars from the country.
Banking stocks were among the worst hit in Russia.
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