The Russian government has halted trading on the RTS and Micex stock exchanges for the second day running, after massive drops in share prices across multiple industries yesterday. In the meantime, the Russian Finance Ministry is issuing loans worth 1.3 trillion rubles ($44 billion) to the country's three largest banks and one brokerage is having to sell a stake in order to meet its financial commitments, according to Bloomberg reports. The oil and gas-rich country's equity market has been hit hard by the recent decline in the price of many commodities. The RTS stock index has plunged about 54% this year, according to MarketWatch.