Russian stocks rebounded sharply in Thursday's afternoon trading, with financial markets regulators causing confusion among traders by suspending and resuming trading at MICEX twice after a sharp surge in prices.
The Federal Financial Markets Service told the country's two major bourses - the RTS and MICEX - to reopen as usual Thursday after both were ordered to stay closed until Friday amid steep losses during the previous session.
At 1020 GMT, MICEX, the country's biggest exchange by volume, was trading up 13.6% at 724.58, but the dollar-denominated RTS had been halted until 1105 GMT. The price at which trading was halted was up 12.3% at 855.61, with both exchanges benefiting from the sturdier backdrop across European markets.
Participants welcomed the early restart.
"The spiral of deleveraging generates endless margin calls, which push stocks to insane levels," said VTB Capital strategist Ivan Ivanchenko.
In particular, energy stocks were in high demand with the country's second-biggest oil producer OAO Lukoil (LKOH.RS) trading up 27.6% at $45.3 and state-controlled gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) up 18.5% at $5.32.
"Many investors are still concerned about the situation in the States (U.S.), but so far we're seeing a substantial bounce, after the huge declines earlier in the week," said Igor Prokhayev, a trader at Moscow-based brokerage Troika Dialog, adding that markets are still very volatile.
"It could, however, be short-lived as those who were buying in the morning, could very well sell it all in the afternoon," Prokhayev said.
When trading at MICEX was suspended for the second time Thursday, regulators said trading would resume Monday, but the service changed its mind and ordered the bourse to reopen only one hour later at 0940 GMT.
"The 'halt-until-further-notice' is more likely to add uncertainty and therefore investors will end up requiring a higher risk premium," said VTB Capital's Ivanchenko.
Indeed, the inability to re-value portfolios only adds to panic, Ivanchenko added.
The RTS saw its biggest one-day fall of all time Monday - around 20% - as stocks plunged amid fears over the global economy and in particular the financial sector.
Since then, investors have been hoping for the heavy losses seen on other world markets to subside and give Russian equities a platform from which to recover.
They are also waiting to see the effect of more than $200 billion in support pledged by the Russian government. That package will boost banking-sector liquidity, help firms refinance foreign loans and may be used to prop up equity prices.
The RTS is languishing almost 70% off a mid-May high of almost 2,500 points.