Moscow stocks higher after Crimea votes to join Russia

MOSCOW, Mar 17 (Reuters): Russian shares opened higher on Monday after Ukraine's Crimea region voted in favour of joining Russia, as local investors shrugged off threatened Western sanctions believing they would be largely symbolic.
At 0745 GMT the dollar-denominated RTS index was up 1.4 per cent at 1,078 points, while the ruble-denominated MICEX was up 1.3 per cent at 1,254 points.
The indexes had opened up 2.4-2.5 per cent before edging back.
Dmitry Ryzhkov, a trader at Renaissance Capital, said negative expectations linked to the vote had largely been priced in earlier as the market has been sliding for the last two weeks.
"For the time being there is nothing new: they carried out the referendum, they haven't yet announced sanctions. Simply for the time being, there are Russian investors who are buying in the belief that there is a bright future," he said.
"Let's wait for the opening of London and the (United) States," he added.