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Friday Nov 15, 2024
Wednesday, 19 March 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 slipped at the open, after stocks gained in Asia and on Wall Street on Monday.
The yen gained but stayed below recent peaks against the dollar and gold, also sought in times of market tension, fell.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order approving a draft treaty on “adopting the Republic of Crimea into the Russian Federation”. He was due to address a special joint session of the Russian parliament on the issue later, aides said.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking region of Crimea voted overwhelmingly in a weekend referendum, condemned by Western states, in favour of joining Russia.
In the wake of Sunday’s vote, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on a small group of Russian and Crimean officials. However, markets’ worst fears that the referendum would lead to violence were not realised.
“The sanctions taken against Russia are relatively soft, and there has been no real escalation in the tensions in the past week, which is good news,” Talence Gestion Fund Manager Alexandre Le Drogoff said.
“Overall, the market has been quite resilient in this Ukrainian crisis, but now it needs a positive catalyst to resume its rally, and we might have to wait for first-quarter corporate results for that.”
Russia’s stock market, hammered in the run-up to the vote, edged higher, though the rouble fell 0.8% to 36.58 to the dollar.
Earlier, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added about 0.3%. Japan’s Nikkei stock average .N225 ended up 0.9%, recovering from Monday’s six-week closing low.
The S&P 500 index .SPX rebounded on Monday from its worst weekly fall in the past seven, ending 0.96% higher as concerns eased over Ukraine and after data indicated the US economy was improving after a winter slowdown.
