Today in Russian Business – Sept 5, 2008

Russian stocks plummeted and the cost to protect government bonds from default jumped to the highest in nearly four years as the central bank shored up its currency pummeled by the ongoing conflict in Georgia and tumbling commodity prices. In Moscow, the ruble-denominated RTS benchmark was down 6.51 percent in late afternoon trading, sinking to the 1,400-point level which hasn’t been seen since June 2006. Moscow-based analysts say they predict the market going further down to 1,300 points this year. Russia’s U.S. dollar-denominated MICEX was down 5.54 percent. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s largest maker of luxury cars, said sales rose 2 percent last month, boosted by economic growth in China and Russia. Top executives and policy makers will examine Russian investment in a series of exclusive interviews at the second Reuters Russia Investment Summit to be held Sept. 8-10. Russia’s huge resources and a consumer products boom may offer growth for another decade, but recent events signal political risks to its financial markets.