Indonesia Suspends Stock Trading, Russia Delays Opening Hours

By Darren Boey

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia halted stock-market trading for a second day, while exchanges in Russia said they will delay opening as the credit crisis extended a rout in global equities.

Iceland's market remains shut for a second day, part of a suspension that will last through Oct. 13. Thailand's exchange said it has no plans to suspend trading or ban short selling.

Russia's Micex and RTS stock exchanges delayed the opening of trading today on orders of the market regulator. It is unclear when trading will start, a spokesman for Micex said. The RTS won't resume stock trading until ``further notice,'' the bourse wrote in an e-mailed statement.

``We are probably close to the point of maximum pessimism,'' said Simon Rudolph, a fund manager at the Hong Kong unit of Franklin Templeton Investments, which manages $507.2 billion of assets. ``We are seeing a lot of paralysis, people not knowing what to do, people not wanting to invest.''


Shares tumbled in Europe and Asia today as the credit freeze deepened, worsening the outlook for the global economy. U.S. stocks slumped yesterday, wiping out almost $900 billion in market value. The MSCI World Index dropped 3.9 percent as of 3:28 p.m. in Hong Kong, taking its slide this month to 22 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Darren Boey in Hong Kong at dboey@bloomberg.net.