Ukraine crisis: Russian stocks sink 9%, rouble hits record low

The rising threat of war between Ukraine and Russia spooked markets and sent investors scurrying for relative safety on Monday, pushing stocks down sharply and lifting gold to a four-month high.

With Russian troops already on Ukrainian soil after an incursion into Crimea, comments over the weekend from President Putin that he had the right to invade the rest of the country were treated as a declaration of war by Kiev.

Geopolitical ripples from those statements, which included condemnation from the Group of Seven major industrialised nations, fanned through markets, hitting Russian assets the most and forcing the Russian central bank to aggressively raise interest rates.

Russia's stock market nosedived 9 per cent at the open on Monday while the rouble fell 2 per cent to record lows against the dollar and the euro, and the central bank dramatically lifted its key lending rate by 1.5 percentage points to 7 per cent at an unscheduled meeting.

No major regional bourse escaped the aggressive selling, with all down more than 1 per cent and Germany's DAX particularly hard hit, tumbling 2.5 per cent.

That had followed overnight weakness in Asia, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.9 per cent and Japan's Nikkei 225 skidding 1.3 per cent, while futures for the U.S. Standard & Poor's 500 slid 0.9 per cent off Friday's record high.

"We can expect some very sharp moves in the ensuing couple of days as markets and world leaders look to establish just how much of a threat there is to not only to stability in the area but stability across Europe," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari UK.

Chief beneficiaries of the market-wide flight from risk were gold, German benchmark debt and the Japanese yen and other currencies perceived as safe-havens in times of heightened volatility, while oil was supported by the demand outlook.

Concern about China's economy also weighed on markets after a purchasing managers' index showed China's vast factory sector contracted again in February.

Spot gold hit a four-month intraday high of $1,350 an ounce, while the dollar dropped to as low as 101.22 against the yen, its weakest in almost a month and slipped back against the Swiss franc to near Friday's two-year low of 0.8782 franc.

"It's a reaction to the escalation in tension in Ukraine over the weekend ... the traditional risk proxies are getting hit, and the safe havens are getting bid," said ANZ currency strategist Sam Tuck in Auckland.

The euro shed 0.2 per cent against the dollar to $1.3771, slipping from Friday's two-month high as the euro zone economy is seen as vulnerable because of its dependence on gas supplies from Russia, part of which go through Ukraine.

Worries that Putin could act to crimp those gas supplies if the situation escalates further, and the prospect of a typical run-up in demand should war break out, boosted crude prices across the board.

Brent crude, the European oil benchmark, rose as much as 2 per cent to a two-month high of $111.41 per barrel before trimming gains slightly. U.S. crude futures, meanwhile, hit a five-month high of $104.65.

On top of concerns about a military confrontation, it was not clear if Ukraine's new interim government, formed only about a week ago after pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovich had been ousted, can secure funds to avoid default.

Kiev has said it needs $35 billion over two years to avoid default, and may need $4 billion immediately. But Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksander Shlapak said on Saturday the country was unlikely to receive financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund before April.

Concerns over Ukraine sent the yield on 10-year U.S. debt to a one-month low of 2.592 per cent, before recovering to trade at 2.62 per cent ahead of the release of important economic data this week, including manufacturing data on Monday and payrolls data on Friday.

Kicking off this week's data was China, where a private survey found Chinese factory activity shrank again in February as output and new orders fell, reinforcing concerns about a slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy.

That offset a more upbeat survey from the Chinese services sector and pushed copper down to a three-month low. China is the world's top metals consumer and the market is already concerned about growing copper stockpiles in China.

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014