Russia's stock exchanges soared today before they were forced to close again for an hour by regulators.

Trading was halted after only 35 minutes on the rouble-denominated MICEX exchange when its index of share prices leapt 18 per cent after the market reopened following a two-day closure.

The dollar-denominated RTS index suspended business after an hour when it rose 14 per cent as buyers returned to the market in response to the Government's injection of billions of roubles into the financial system.

The fourth suspension of trading in as many days was triggered by technical limits on the permitted speed of share-price increases.

Both exchanges reopened after 60 minutes and continued their upward surge, the MICEX rising 24 per cent by midday in Moscow.

The stock markets suffered their worst one-day losses on Tuesday since Russia defaulted on its foreign debt in 1998 as the global credit crunch took its toll on confidence along with the sinking price of oil and concerns over the political fallout from last month's war with Georgia.

Regulators ordered the markets to close as the Government put together a package of measures to flood the banking system with liquidity.

President Medvedev ordered ministers yesterday to inject 500 billion roubles (£11 billion) into the markets from the state budget and pledged "all necessary support" for the financial system.

Alexei Kudrin, the Finance Minister, attempted to bolster confidence yesterday by announcing that the state was ready to buy shares using up to $20 billion (£11 billion) of government funds if markets did not stabilise.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also talked up the market last night in a meeting with foreign investors at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin's chief economic adviser, also told reporters today: "Systemic problems will be resolved and there will be no shocks."

He also insisted that the crisis would not lead to increased state control of the economy and that the Government had no interest in raising its stake in companies and industries for the long term by buying shares now. Mr Dvorkovich said: "As soon as the situation stabilises, the state will sell its shares if they are not linked to diversifying portfolios of investments in the stock market of state corporations and other institutions."

The Government pumped $44 billion into the banking system earlier this week and cut reserve requirements by four percentage points to release 300 billion roubles in bank funds.

Mr Kudrin also said that a cut in export duties for oil companies would help them to deal with the fall in world prices. In all, the state's intervention in Russia's financial markets came to more than $130 billion.

Traders said that the government medicine appeared to be curing the market's ills. Alexander Razuvaev, head of market analysis at Sobin Bank, said: "I think we will have a jump higher and then a consolidation around the 1,300-500 level on RTS as long as there is no crash in the United States."

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