“Oil and gas stocks, as well as metals and mining shares, suffered the steepest losses Monday.

The RTS Oil and Gas index fell 22%, with shares of state-controlled Gazprom (UK:OGZD: news, chart, profile) and oil giant Lukoil (UK:LKOD: news, chart, profile) suffering double-digit declines.

The RTS Metals and Mining index fell 15%, with shares of Russia’s largest mining company Norilsk Nickel (UK:MNOD: news, chart, profile) going into free fall. In London trading, Norilsk tumbled 44%.

The Russian equity market is dominated by resource stocks, particularly oil and gas companies, and as a result the recent tumble in commodity prices has hit Russia particularly hard.”

More at Marketwatch.

Comment:

That makes the RTS the biggest loser globally, down 62% year to date and 19.1% today.

As energy and commodity speculators have been flushed out by the banking crisis, markets dominated by them have been hit the worst.

Update:

Steve Saville writes that in the last two weeks the Fed’s (Federal Reserve, not the government or Treasury) balance sheet has increased by 50% and says that this portends a massive increase in true money supply that is going to be hugely inflationary. He advises against stocks, bonds, or real estate and suggests that industrial commodities may be in a slump for a while – leaving only precious metals viable. He also thinks we’ll see the PM’s go up in advance of any really severe inflation because of the big players taking positions ahead of the crowd. But technically, GLD, from what I’ve seen hasn’t shown a clear break-out from its trend lines. And SLV has been quite volatile to the downside and restrained to the up. I’d be cautious yet.

Then again, for a stock market untouched by the ongoing earthquake, check out the Iraqi stock exchange.