Sawt Falasteen - Oil soars, ruble and equities dive on Russia fallout

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to the latest tough measures by placing his nuclear forces on high alert on Sunday and the Kremlin has insisted it can ride out the sanctions.

Brent crude again topped $100 per barrel and Europe's reference Dutch TTF natural gas price rose by more than 12 percent to 106 euros per megawatt hour in mid-afternoon trading, as fears grew over Russian energy supplies.

The news, alongside sharp gains for aluminium, nickel and wheat, sparked renewed concern over rampant inflation.

Traders will closely watch a meeting this week of OPEC and other major oil producers led by Russia, where they will discuss output plans.

Wall Street stocks opened lower as investors followed a sell-off that began in Europe earlier on Monday.

The Dow was down 1.2 percent, the tech-rich Nasdaq index shed 0.9 percent and the broad-based S&P 500 was down one percent in early trading.

European stocks sank with London losing 1.3 percent, while Frankfurt and Paris shed 2.1 percent and 2.7 percent respectively following a mixed showing in Asia.

The ruble struck record lows against the euro and dollar after the West banned all transactions with Russia's central bank and ejected some lenders from international payments system SWIFT.

- Eurozone banks take hit -

The weekend news sent shockwaves through European banks early on Monday amid fears of a sector-wide impact.

In Paris, Societe Generale slumped 10.4 percent, BNP Paribas shed 8.2 percent and Credit Agricole lost 5.5 percent.

In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank was the biggest loser with a drop of 8.5 percent.

"European banks with the biggest exposure to Russia... have been hit hardest amid today's market sell-off," said Interactive Investor's Victoria Scholar.

"The SWIFT system in this context mainly matters as it allows Russian energy companies to easily sell oil and gas abroad via the conduit of the global financial system."

The European subsidiary of Russia's state-owned Sberbank is meanwhile facing bankruptcy in the wake of the sanctions, the European Central Bank said on Monday.

In the British capital, Russia-exposed companies were back in the firing line.

London-listed shares in Russian metal giants Polymetal and Evraz took another battering, collapsing by 52 percent and 27 percent respectively.

British energy giant BP dived almost 6.0 percent after deciding to exit Russia.

Gold and the yen, go-to assets in times of uncertainty, rose, while the dollar was up against most other currencies.

Emerging markets units took a hit from the Ukraine turmoil, with the Hungarian forint hitting an all-time low against the euro.

News that Russia's central bank had raised interest rates to 20 percent -- the highest since 2003 -- helped pare the ruble's losses only briefly as worried Russians queued up outside banks to withdraw savings.

- Key figures around 1445 GMT -

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.9 percent at $100.74 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.9 percent at $95.12 per barrel

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.2 percent at 33,668.37 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 1.0 percent at 4,340.83

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 0.8 percent at 13,589.77

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.3 percent at 7,390.24

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 2.1 percent at 14,255.85

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 2.7 percent at 6,568.72

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 2.7 percent at 3,862.63

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.2 percent at 26,526.82 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 22,713.02 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,462.31 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1227 from $1.1268 late Friday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3419 from $1.3409

Euro/pound: DOWN at 83.68 pence from 84.03 pence

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 115.24 yen from 115.55 yen

E.AbuRizq--SF-PST