The Russian state-owned companies Gazprom and Sberbank collapsed the Russian stock market: the decision to refuse to pay dividends led to a panic on the Moscow Stock Exchange and total sales. The Moscow Exchange Index at its peak fell around 7% to 2184.71 points. This is evidenced by trading data.

The fall leaders were Gazprom, whose shareholders unexpectedly decided to refuse to pay record dividends, which led to a collapse in quotations by more than 30%. In second place in terms of fall was the state holding VK (ex-Mail.ru), which fell by 8.19% to 905.8 rubles per share, the state company Rosneft closes the top three, whose shares fell by 5.92%, to 361 45 rubles. FGC UES (-5.85%, to 0.08984 rubles) and OZON (-5.75, to 836.5 rubles) were also in the top 5 in terms of the fall.

Among the "blue chips" (the most reliable and liquid securities of the stock market), in addition to Gazprom and Rosneft, shares of Yandex (-5.2%, to 1,623 rubles), Polymetal (-5%, to 389, 5 rubles) and Tinkoff (-4.31%, up to 1,732 rubles). Sberbank shares are also under pressure due to the decision not to pay dividends for 2021. Quotes of the country's largest bank fell by 3.76% and reached 127.81 rubles per share.

The index shows the strongest one-day drop since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Moreover, the index may go even lower, since on June 30, the state company Rosneft, which had previously signaled to investors that it was ready to pay 23.63 rubles per share, should also announce its decision on dividends.