The Australian share market has increased for the third day in a row, and the Reserve Bank has warned that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major source of uncertainty.
Australian shares rose as much as 1.6 per cent on Tuesday, boosted by oil and gas stocks, technology firms and banks.
But they came off their highs by the close.
The All Ordinaries index closed up 0.9 per cent to 7,385.
The ASX 200 index rose 0.7 per cent to 7,097, with more sectors higher than lower.
The Reserve Bank kept official interest rates on hold at 0.1 per cent as expected, with RBA governor Philip Lowe saying the war in Ukraine was a "major new source of uncertainty".
Gold miners lost ground as the precious metal fell in Asian trade, and utilities were a major drag.
The Commonwealth Bank said it would sell a 10 per cent stake in Chinese bank, the Bank of Hangzhou, for $1.8 billion.
Its shares rose 1.4 per cent to $94.82.
Shares in Virtus Health (+4,7pc) jumped after the in vitro fertilisation service provider received an improved takeover offer from CapVest Partners.
Virtus said it would not engage with rival bidder, BGH Capital.
The best performers on the ASX 200 index were payments firm Block, the owner of Afterpay (+12.8pc), online bookmaker Pointsbet (+17.5pc) and uranium firm Paladin Energy (+13pc).
Miner IGO said it had abandoned talks with global miner Glencore about buying its CSA copper mine in New South Wales.
Leading the losses were copper miner Sandfire Resources (-11.6pc), gold miner Perseus Mining (-7.4pc), and buy now, pay later firm Zip (-6.3pc), after it raised nearly $150 million to fund its takeover of smaller rival Sezzle.
But the issue price of $1.90 per share was a 14 per cent discount to the company's last closing price.
Insurance Australia Group said it had received 6,700 claims for damage so far because of the floods in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.
It expects the number of claims to rise over coming days.
The Australian dollar was buying around 72.62 US cents at 4:40pm AEDT, after it jumped nearly 1 cent overnight.
It fell slightly after the RBA kept rates on hold.
Asian markets were also higher, with the Nikkei 225 in Japan up 1.3 per cent to 26,876.
Brent crude futures rose 1. 2 per cent to $US98.11 a barrel at 4:50pm AEDT.
Spot gold fell 0.05 per cent to $US1906.83 an ounce.
Russia doubles interest rates
Russia more than doubled its key interest rate and introduced some capital controls as it scrambles to shield its economy from financial sanctions imposed by the West because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The central bank increased its key rate to 20 per cent, the highest level this century, from 9.5 per cent.
That's after the Russian rouble plunged by one-third to a record low of 109.1850 against the greenback after the West imposed new financial sanctions on Russia, including banning some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system and freezing foreign reserves of the Russian central bank.
The sanctions restrict the Bank of Russia's ability to use its $US640 billion in foreign exchange and gold reserves.
Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina told a news conference that interest rates were raised because of the plunge of the rouble.
The rouble clawed back some ground after the rise in interest rates and the Bank of Russia sold $US1 billion on foreign exchange markets.
The Russian stock market will remain closed for a second day to prevent further losses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin banned all Russian residents from transferring foreign currency overseas.
The immediate steps include a ban on payments of hard currency made to foreigners in relation to loan agreements.
The central bank said the ban only covers new loans and not servicing of existing debt.
The Biden administration also announced new sanctions against Russia's central bank.
The move bans Americans from doing any business with the bank and freezes its assets in the United States.
US Treasury yields dropped as sanctions against Russia were ramped up.
A global banking industry lobby group warned that Russia was likely to default on foreign debt and its economy could suffer a double-digit contraction this year.
The Institute of International Finance estimated that half of Russia's central bank foreign reserves are held in countries that have imposed freezes on its assets.
Elina Ribakova, the group's deputy chief economist, warned that Russia was becoming increasingly unlikely to pay its debts.
IG Markets analyst Kyle Rodda said the war would hurt not just Europe, but the global economy.
"In the longer run, this event is likely to be inflationary, given the huge impacts of the crisis on energy and broader commodity prices."
Western firms head for the exit
Oil giants BP and Shell, global bank HSBC and the world's biggest aircraft-leasing firm AerCap have joined a growing list of companies looking to exit Russia.
Shell joined Russia's biggest investor BP in saying it would exit all Russian operations.
That includes the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant, in which Shell owns a 27.5 per cent stake, and which is 50 per cent owned and operated by Russian gas group Gazprom.
BP announced on the weekend that it was abandoning its 20 per cent stake in Russian state-controlled Rosneft at a cost of up to $US25 billion.BP shares fell nearly 4 per cent in London and Shell shares lost 1.4 per cent.
Equiqor, the energy firm controlled by Norway, said it would start divesting its joint ventures in Russia.
HSBC said it was starting to wind down relations with Russian banks including the second largest, VTB, which has been targeted by financial sanctions.
Wall Street in volatile trade
The financial sanctions against Russia saw Wall Street tumble, but stocks pared their losses by the close.
The Dow Jones index and the S&P 500 fell more than 1 per cent during the session.
The Dow closed down 0.5 per cent to 33,893, the S&P 500 fell 0.24 per cent to 4,374 and the Nasdaq turned recouped its losses and rose 0.4 per cent to 13,751, helped by electric car makers Tesla and Rivian Automotive.
Meanwhile, Citigroup said its total exposure to Russia amounted to $US10 billion.
Its shares fell 4.4 per cent.
European stocks cut their losses as Russia and Ukraine held ceasefire talks, but eurozone banks slumped because of the financial sanctions.
The FTSE 100 index fell 0.4 per cent to 7,458, the DAX in Germany lost 0.7 per cent to 14,461, and the CAC 40 fell 1.4 per cent to 6,659.
Oil prices soared on fears about disruption to energy prices because of some Russian banks being blocked from the SWIFT network.
Brent crude rose 3.2 per cent to $US101.10 a barrel overnight.
While spot gold rose 0.9 per cent to $US1904.78 an ounce.
European natural gas futures rose sharply as trading opened for the week but gave back some gains later in the session.
ANZ economists said the market remained wary that the fighting in Ukraine may damage key pipelines that deliver Russian gas to Europe causing energy shortages.
The European Union convened an emergency meeting to discuss what steps would be taken if Russia gas supplies were disrupted, and Belgium's energy minister Tinne van der Straeten said that the EU must work to accelerate the energy transition.
The minister also proposed the freezing of gas prices.
AUSTRAC sues Crown over money laundering
Shares in casino operator Crown Resorts lost 0.1 per cent after financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC launched legal action in the Federal Court against Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth for alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing laws.
AUSTRAC accused Crown of "alleged serious and systemic noncompliance" with anti-money laundering laws and is seeking civil penalties that could potentially cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
AUSTRAC chief executive Nicole Rose said Crown failed to meet its legal obligations under the laws, making its business and Australia's financial system vulnerable to criminal exploitation.
"They also failed to carry out appropriate ongoing customer due diligence including on some very high-risk customers."
"This leads to widespread and serious non-compliance over a number of years," Ms Rose said.
Crown said the legal action follows a long-running investigation by AUSTRAC, which began in October 2020.
It said that Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth had fully co-operated with the regulator.
The casino firm said it had developed a comprehensive remediation plan which included a financial crime and compliance change program and improved controls to detect money laundering.
AUSTRAC is also investigating rival casino firms SkyCity Adelaide and the Star Group, which runs Sydney's Star casino.
Crown was found by royal commissions in Victoria and Western Australia and an inquiry in New South Wales to have facilitated money laundering at its casinos.
Last month it accepted a $9 billion takeover offer from US private equity firm Blackstone.
ABC/Reuters
