As global stock markets continued their dive from last week, when a plunge in Chinese shares prompted a fall on Wall Street and other trading floors, the Russian stock market registered a sharp decline March 5.
"There are not even the slightest fears that these developments might prompt a crisis in Russia," German Gref told journalists in Singapore.
Almost all of Russia's blue chips registered losses in the first minutes of trading Monday. Energy giant Gazprom shed 5.75% in the RTS and 6.2% on the MICEX, electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems (UES) lost 5.9% and 5.4%, respectively, the stock of state-controlled oil company Rosneft tumbled 3.49% in the RTS and 4% on the MICEX, and the shares of state retail savings bank Sberbank were down 3.11% and 3.56%, respectively.
However, Gref shrugged off fears regarding Russian stocks' swift depreciation.
"There is no reason to dump Russian shares," the minister said.
At the same time, the minister said Russia is part of the global financial system and Russian stocks are expected to follow the global downward trend, although with a mitigated effect, adding that Asian markets were the prime cause for the slide in global stocks.
According to Russian experts, the domestic stock market is affected by worries of a possible global slowdown as demonstrated by falling indexes in developing economies, especially in the Asian region.
