Sri Lanka’s public transport was crippled Wednesday as buses ran out of diesel, officials said as the country’s foreign exchange crisis worsened with no dollars to import fuel.

Saudi energy giant Aramco’s shares rose to a record high on Wednesday amid a surge in global oil prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There’s  some good news for small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) based online as  Shakti Foundation, a microfinance intuition, has joined hands with  Delivery Tiger, a courier and parcel service platform, to disburse  collateral-free loans among them, including F-commerce companies.

Asian stocks came under renewed pressure on Wednesday and the price of oil surged past $110 per barrel as investors worried about the impact of aggressive sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine.

Major investors, including hedge fund Man Group and British asset manager abrdn, said on Tuesday they were cutting their positions in Russia in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

China’s purchases of Iranian oil have risen to record levels in recent months, exceeding a 2017 peak when the trade was not subject to US sanctions, tanker tracking data showed.

Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Tuesday paused the delivery of vehicles to Russia, saying the current global situation had presented it with trading challenges.

TotalEnergies condemned what it called Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine but stopped short on Tuesday of joining rivals Shell and BP in planning to exit positions in resource-rich Russia.

Energy giants BP and Shell, global bank HSBC and the world’s biggest aircraft leasing firm AerCap joined a growing list of companies looking to exit Russia on Monday, as Western sanctions tightened the screws on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The OPEC+ cartel of top oil producers at their monthly meeting on Wednesday are likely to be powerless to rein in prices, which have soared above $100 after member Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s ruble plunged nearly 30 per cent against the dollar Monday after world powers imposed fresh, harsher sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s central bank announced a slew of measures on Sunday to support domestic markets, as it scrambled to manage the broadening fallout of harsh Western sanctions over the weekend in retaliation against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Oil prices jumped on Monday as Western allies imposed more sanctions on Russia and blocked some Russian banks from a global payments system, which could cause severe disruption to its oil exports.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China disapproves of using sanctions as a means to solve problems and rejects unilateral sanctions that are not based on international law.

Crude oil jumped while the rouble plunged nearly 30% to a record low on Monday after Western nations imposed tough new sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT global payments system.

The uncertainty created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on the global economy is piling more complexity onto the US central bank’s already tough fight to contain rising prices.

Alphabet Inc’s Google barred on Saturday Russia’s state-owned media outlet RT and other channels from receiving money for ads on their websites, apps and YouTube videos, similar to a move by Facebook after the invasion of Ukraine.

Asst Prof Nattapon Nimmanphatcharin, director-general of the agency, revealed that the Transform Fresh Market Project has been implemented to promote and support SME entrepreneurs, hawker shops, stalls in six pilot provinces – Bangkok, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Pathom, Chainat, Sing Buri and Lop Buri.

Ukraine has requested additional aid from the IMF following the Russian invasion, the fund’s leader Kristalina Georgieva said Friday.

Investors were preparing on Saturday for more wild gyrations in asset prices after Western nations announced a harsh set of sanctions to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system.