Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Russian regulators closed the Micex Stock Exchange for two days as a new $36 billion injection into the banking system by President Dmitry Medvedev failed to halt the country's biggest stock collapse since 1998.

The Micex Index plunged for a sixth day, falling 14 percent to 637.87, the lowest level in more than three years, before trading was halted at 11:05 a.m. in Moscow. The bourse won't open until Oct. 10 unless regulators say otherwise, Micex Chief Executive Officer Alexei Rybnikov said in an interview.

Russian stocks have lost more than half their value, wiping out $418 billion, since the war between Russia and Georgia in August and falling commodity prices drove away investors. Russia's government has responded to its biggest test since the debt default and ruble devaluation a decade ago by pledging at least $186 billion in emergency support.

``This time, the government has got plenty of money and the problem is a global one,'' Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management Ltd., which manages about $30 billion in emerging market stocks, said in a phone interview today. ``I'm surprised the Russian government is not taking equity stakes in exchange for all this cash they're doling out. In that sense, Russia is acting more capitalistically than the U.S. in all of this.''

Mobius said yesterday he's using the market declines to add to his Russian holdings.

The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and four other central banks lowered interest rates today in a coordinated effort to ease the economic effects of the financial crisis.

Russia lowered its bank reserve requirements and some interest rates on Sept. 18. Medvedev today proposed a five-point international plan to stabilize markets, calling for greater coordination between regulators, tougher oversight of companies and improved disclosure.

Oil Slump

Emerging markets including Russia are being battered after escaping the worst of the global credit crisis earlier this year as oil climbed above $145 a barrel in July. Russia depends on oil and gas for more than two-thirds of its export earnings, driving average growth of almost 7 percent a year.

Russia's fortunes deteriorated as crude plummeted to below $90 a barrel this month. Tension with the U.S. over the war in Georgia and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's attack on coal and steel producer OAO Mechel added to investor concerns, while quickening inflation contributed to slowing economic growth.

The Micex dropped 64 percent since June 30, while the ruble weakened to 26.10 to the dollar, the lowest in 18 months. The RTS Index fell 47 percent in the third quarter, the second-worst among 88 national benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg and the worst quarter for the index since 1998.

Gazprom Falls

``Most of the Russian blue chips are extremely undervalued,'' Micex's Rybnikov said on Bloomberg Television. ``The market will certainly find its bottom at some point.''

Energy companies led declines today before shares were suspended, with OAO Gazprom, the world's biggest natural-gas producer, falling 17 percent to 116.90 rubles. OAO Rosneft, the biggest oil producer, slid 14 percent to 91.29 rubles, while smaller rival OAO Lukoil dropped 16 percent to 940 rubles

``Under normal circumstances, it's damaging to introduce artificial controls on the market, but given the risk of a free fall to destruction, suspending trades is the lesser of two evils,'' said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow.

The Russian Depositary Index, a measure of Russian global depositary receipt trading, today fell 3.1 percent.

The cost of protecting Russian government debt against default jumped 52 basis points to 352, the highest in at least four years, according to CMA Datavision's credit-default swap prices.

Foreign Reserves

Falling oil revenue in 1998 contributed to the crisis that caused Russia to renege on $40 billion of domestic debt and devalue the ruble, wiping out millions of people's savings.

``The situation is similar to 1998, but back then companies used their own resources to pull themselves up,'' said Anton Struchenevsky, an economist at Troika Dialog in Moscow. The real sector of the economy is much more dependent on the credit markets now, ``so the restoration of the financial industry will go hand in hand with the real sector,'' he said.

Russia has used the oil boom to build the world's third- biggest foreign-currency reserves at $563 billion, up from $10 billion in 1999.

Lukoil, Russia's second-biggest oil producer, will seek to borrow between $2 billion and $5 billion from the government to refinance loans, spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said yesterday. Gazprom said it may use government loans for ``force majeure situations'' or long-term investments in energy projects.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Mauldin in Moscow at wmauldin1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 8, 2008 10:51 EDT