Key commodity rates surged and share costs toppled as the financial markets responded to the news on Thursday that Russia had launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine.

Germany’s DAX index had actually plummeted by simply below 4 percent at the close of play, falling to 14,052.10 points.

At the end of trading, the MDax, the index for medium-sized business, had actually slipped by 3.84 percent to 30,663.58 points.

Britain’s FTSE 100 index saw its greatest one-day fall given that June 2020.

By the end of trading on Thursday, ₤ 77 billion ($103 billion) had been cleaned from the value of Britain’s 100 most significant listed business, journalism Association (PA) news agency reported.

This was equivalent to a drop of 3.9 percent.

“Our worst fears have been realised,” said portfolio supervisor Thomas Altmann from QC Partners in Frankfurt. “There is war raging in Europe.”

The U.S. markets followed the European slide. The benchmark Dow Jones and Nasdaq both opened over 2.5 percent down on the previous day’s close.

The rout was begun in Asia, where stock markets revealed heavy losses as news of the intrusion broke on Thursday morning.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 benchmark index ended the day down 1.81 per cent, at 25,970.82 points.

The CSI 300 index of the 300 essential companies from mainland China lost 2.03 percent, to end the day at 4,529.32 points.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was down 3.6 percent, at 22,802.23 points.

In Australia, the S&P/ ASX 200 index closed 2.98 percent lower, at 6,990.63 points.

In Russia itself, the benchmark RTS-Index at one point come by almost half to 610. It then partially recovered to be some 35 percent down compared to the previous day’s close.

Shares in gas giant Gazprom lost about a third of their value.

The Russian ruble fell at one point to a record low against the U.S. dollar, losing 6 percent of its value.

The Russian reserve bank divulged it would intervene in the market to avoid any more reduction in the rouble’s price.

The euro also lost ground against the dollar, falling 1.4 percent to 1.114.

Secret products such as wheat and oil, on the other hand, saw sharp rate increases throughout the day.

A barrel (159 litres) of North Sea Brent cost more than $100 for the very first time considering that 2014.

Aluminium prices also rose in the early hours of Thursday.

On the London Stock Exchange, the cost of one lots of the metal rose by 2.9 per cent to $3,388, passing the previous high reached during the economic crisis of 2008.

Natural gas of which Russia is a significant global provider is needed for aluminium production.

Gold, which is regarded as a safe house financial investment in uncertain times, saw its price increase towards the $2,000 mark on the London Stock Exchange.

One troy ounce (31.1 grams) was trading at up to $1,974 today, its greatest level considering that September 2020.