The losses of private investors from the suspension of trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on the morning of February 24, 2022, when the military operation in Ukraine began, could amount to more than 140 million rubles. This was reported by RBC with reference to a representative of a group of private investors at a meeting on a lawsuit against the Bank of Russia: the Moscow Arbitration Court began to consider it.
The dispute became known in October 2023, but the amount of the claims has not been announced so far.
It should be noted that the announced amount is not final; the losses of only six private investors who joined the lawsuit were calculated. The evaluation is still ongoing.
The plaintiffs’ representative explained that investors were unable to close margin positions due to the trading halt, resulting in debts to brokers and subsequent losses. It is assumed that if trading had not been stopped, investors would have managed to close positions before the market fell more seriously; they would have suffered losses on their own investments, but would have avoided debts to brokers.
The representative of the plaintiffs noted that the suspension of trading in the morning session of February 24, 2022 does not fall into the cases described in the rules of the Moscow Stock Exchange.
Representatives of the Bank of Russia, on the contrary, believe that continuing operations on the morning of February 24, 2022 would have caused even greater losses to investors. According to them, continuing trading would increase the volatility of instrument quotes, since the trading session is additional and a small number of investors participate in it.
The Moscow Arbitration Court announced a suspension of the hearing until January 26, 2024.
Author:
Anastasia Marina
Source: RB
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