Russia’s Central Bank Keeps Stock Market Closed

The Russian central bank won’t be reopening stock market trading on the Moscow Exchange between March 14-18, Reuters reported Saturday (March 12).

There will be an exception for some non-open-market transactions and those using the country’s SPFS payment system.

Reuters wrote that Russia’s position is that the foreign exchange market, money market and repo market would open at 7:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the aforementioned dates. Additionally, there would be an operating mode announced for the following week announced sometime in the future.

Russia has been seeing sanctions leveled at it for weeks now as the country has been engaging in military action against Ukraine since late February. In addition to governmental actions, several big companies are pulling out of Russia in protest.

PYMNTS wrote that McDonald’s, which was one of the companies to make that decision, is still looking into the total cost of shuttering its eateries in the country.

See also: McDonald’s Estimates Russian Eatery Shutdown Will Cost $50M Monthly

The fast food chain says it’s likely to lose around $50 million per month, which would come out to five or six cents per share.

On March 8, the company announced its plan to close all 850 of its quick-serve restaurants in Russia in response to the situation. Most of the locations there are owned by the company and not franchisees.

McDonald’s also paused operations for its 108 restaurants in Ukraine.

According to McDonald’s, the company plans to continue to pay full salaries for all the Ukrainian employees, and it will be paying all of its 62,000 Russian employees during the closure.

Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan said that McDonald’s will still be making lease payments for its Russian locations, and will also pay supply chain costs and various other expenses.

“We expect this to be temporary and we certainly don’t take this decision lightly, but for us this is about doing what we think is the right thing to do, both for the global business and for our people locally,” Ozan said.