Asian stocks largely down on Monday as President Vladimir Putin raised Russia’s nuclear alert level following stinging new sanctions from the West over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The CSI300, HSI, and TOPIX inched down by 0.12%, 0.61% and 0.04% respectively.
Earlier the U.S. and its allies on Saturday vowed to remove major Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging network, effectively cutting them off from the global financial network. Some experts speculated about runs on Russian banks as the value of the ruble sinks against the U.S. dollar.
However, some investors are zeroing in on Western nations’ decision to exclude some Russian banks from the SWIFT platform used for trillions of dollars worth of transactions around the globe.
Crude oil prices are largely up with WTI trading at $96.12 while Brent is over $100 level at $101.88.
