Russian shares tumble after Ukraine jet crash
Russian markets took a further tumble on Friday after the crash of a Malaysian plane in rebel-held east Ukraine dramatically raised tensions between the Kremlin and the West. The disaster which claimed the lives of all 298 people on board came after Washington and Brussels introduced biting new sanctions against Moscow on Thursday, with the United States targeting companies in the military, energy and finance sectors. “The plane catastrophe was a real shock for those investors who had started to believe that it was all about de-escalation,” said Slava Smolyaninov, chief strategist at Uralsib Capital. “For the market, it really was a bad confluence of events with the US sanctions in the morning and the plane tragedy in the evening. Unsurprisingly, investors are taking money off the table in view of higher risks,” he told AFP in emailed comments. In Moscow, the ruble-denominated Micex stock index fell by 1.67 percent in early trading, and the dollar-based RTS index was down 2.23 perc...