A drop resumed on the Russian stock market on Friday.

One of the main reasons for this drop was the strict measures which the Council of Europe is going to take against Russia. Yesterday, participants of the market did not regard this information as possible to have a negative impact on the dynamics of share prices. However, this news became one of the most important factors that influenced the beginning of today's trading. The most cautious traders decided not to risk and started to fix their profits. This resulted in a drop in prices at the very beginning of the trade. By midday, Russian shares dropped by about 3.5%. The MICEX index was down 0.6% at 246.95 points in the first hour of trade. The RTS index went down by 1.47% to 219.15 points, and the RBC index, which is calculated from data coming from various trading floors, dropped by 1.72% to 40.06 points. The activity of traders was higher today. The MICEX trade volume reached 442m rubles ($15.41m), and the RTS volume of trade amounted to $8.8m by 12:00.