Rusal shares plummet to new low

Russia's aluminium producer Rusal tumbled as much as 21% this morning in Hong Kong after the US promised further sanctions against Moscow for supporting the Syrian government.

The Trump administration vowed to impose more sanctions against Russia for supporting the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons in the wake of US-led military strikes on Syria on April 14.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and his companies were targeted by US sanctions announced on April 6. The US Treasury said the sanctions against seven high-profile Russian businessmen, a dozen of their companies and 17 senior government officials were linked to Russia’s actions in Crimea, Syria and Ukraine.

That announcement saw the company’s shares drop 50.4% last Monday.

Rusal shares had trimmed losses to to be 17.2% lower in Asia trading, bringing the company’s total decline to 63.6 per cent since sanctions were announced, against a 1.2% fall for the benchmark Hang Seng index, the Financial Times reported.