(Reuters) -The Russian central bank said on Monday it had temporarily suspended publishing data on foreign trade on a monthly basis in the first such suspension since 1997.

The central bank was due to release a foreign trade balance for January-February on Monday, as initially planned, according to its data release schedule.

The central bank did not explain its decision to suspend publication of the foreign trade data, monthly figures for which can be tracked back as far as 1997 on the bank’s website.

In January, the latest data available, Russian foreign trade surplus fell to $21.17 billion from $26.72 billion in the previous month.

Russia is under tough Western sanctions as the United States, the European Union and their allies respond to Moscow’s Ukraine invasion launched on Feb. 24, which the Kremlin calls “a special military operation.”

The sanctions have cut Russia off from the global financial system and Western countries are stepping up the pressure by reducing Russian energy imports.

The central bank had earlier suspended weekly publication of its gold and foreign exchange reserves and also stopped disclosing banking sector statistics.

The bank has resumed publication of this weekly data, which showed that Russian gold and forex reserves had fallen to $606.5 billion as of April 1, down from $643.2 billion days before the invasion.

The Russian energy ministry had earlier suspended a monthly release of oil and gas output data citing technical issues.

Russian oil and gas condensate production declined by 4% in early April from March to 10.58 barrels per day (bpd), Interfax newsagency has said, and analysts have warned of a further up to 1.5 mln bpd fall as buyers cancel cargoes.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)

By Sruthi Shankar and Anisha Sircar

(Reuters) -European stocks fell on Monday as surging bond yields hit technology shares and volatility gripped French blue-chip stocks on forecasts of a tight race between President Emmanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in the final round of the election.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped 0.6%, led by a 2.2% slide in technology stocks. Among the regional indexes, Germany’s DAX slipped 0.6% and the UK’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7%.

France’s CAC 40 inched up 0.1% as partial results put Macron in first place after the first round of voting in the presidential election on Sunday, although Ifop pollsters predicted a tight runoff on April 24, with 51% for Macron and 49% for Le Pen.

French assets have underperformed recently as investors priced in a possibility of a victory for Le Pen, with markets uneasy about her agenda of protectionism, tax cuts and nationalisation. The CAC 40 has shed 1.6% so far in April, while the STOXX 600 is up 0.4%.

“The CAC 40 climbed modestly on relief that Macron won the first round of the presidential election with a slightly bigger lead than anticipated,” said Raffi Boyadjian, lead investment analyst at brokerage XM.

“Although the race could be tighter, markets appear to be breathing a sigh of relief that Le Pen didn’t secure an even bigger share following her recent gains in the polls.”

The French Mid & Smallcap index rose 0.6%, while banks including Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas also gained ground.

Societe Generale jumped 5.0% after it agreed to sell its stake in Rosbank and the Russian lender’s insurance subsidiaries.

Overall, euro zone banks and insurers gained as government bond yields jumped ahead of U.S. inflation data and a European Central Bank meeting later this week.

ECB policymakers are likely be caught between record high inflation and the economic hit from the war in Ukraine, although traders are ramping up bets of rate hikes this year.

Money markets are pricing in 70 basis points of rate hikes by the end of year compared with 65 basis points priced in on Friday. [IRPR]

Among other stocks, Finnish tyre maker Nokian Tyres slumped 15.5% after it said new sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia will have a significant impact on its production.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Arun Koyyur and Susan Fenton)

By Chavi Mehta

(Reuters) -Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify Inc on Monday announced a 10-for-1 split of its class A and class B stock, joining a growing list of companies that have split their shares to make them more attractive for investors.

Shopify would also seek shareholder approval to authorize and issue a new class of shares, called the Founder share, to Tobi Lutke, its chief executive officer and founder.

The proposal seeks to preserve the voting power of Lutke, as the Founder share will provide him with a variable number of votes and that combined with his previously owned shares from other classes would represent 40% of the total voting power attached to all of Shopify’s outstanding shares.

The proposal, however, said that Lutke will hold the Founder shares only until he is an executive at Shopify or a board member.

While D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Tom Forte said the brokerage is generally opposed to founder shares and believes they are not in the interest of shareholders, he said he is willing to give Lutke the benefit of doubt due to his “superb” track record.

“We believe it may protect the company from unwanted suitors, such as Salesforce and Oracle, considering the recent weakness in the (Shopify) stock,” Forte added.

U.S.-listed shares of Shopify were marginally down at $602.61 in morning trading, while they were slightly up at C$765 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They have lost more than half their value this year.

Currently, the company’s class A shares carry one vote per share and class B shares carry 10 votes per share.

Other stock split announcements this year came from e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc, Google-parent Alphabet Inc as well as videogame retailer GameStop Corp. Tesla Inc also had said it would seek shareholder approval for a stock split.

(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Amy Caren Daniel and Shailesh Kuber)

(Reuters) -Epic Games said on Monday it had raised $2 billion from Sony Group Corp and the family owned holding company behind the Lego Group, valuing the “Fortnite” creator at $31.5 billion.

Sony, an existing investor, and the Kirkbi investment company each invested $1 billion, Epic said, with the fundraising to help advance a metaverse partnership the company had entered into with the Lego Group earlier https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/the-lego-group-and-epic-games-team-up-to-build-a-place-for-kids-to-play-in-the-metaverse this month.

Metaverse is the latest buzzword in the technology space, and broadly refers to the idea of a shared virtual platform that people can access through different devices and where they can move through digital environments.

Deals are picking up pace in the segment as tech giants see it to be a major innovation and revenue generator.

Microsoft in January agreed to buy “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, marking the biggest acquisition in the gaming sector and boosting the industry’s bet on the metaverse.

“Fortnite” is already considered to be part of the metaverse, and the investment in Epic will give Sony a chance to delve deeper and capitalize on that business.

Epic Games has largely lost a trial last year over whether Apple’s payment rules for apps were anticompetitive. That decision found Apple had suitable reasons to force some app makers such as Epic to use its payment system and take commissions of 15% to 30% on their sales.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Sriraj Kalluvila)

(Reuters) -The rouble weakened sharply on Monday, reversing some of the previous week’s gains, after Russia relaxed temporary capital control measures aimed at limiting a drop in the currency.

Shares in Rosbank, a Russian subsidiary of French bank Societe Generale, jumped 40% after SocGen said it would quit Russia and take a 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) income hit from selling Rosbank to Interros Capital, a firm linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin.

By 1500 GMT, the rouble had lost more than 4% of its value in jittery trade, sliding to 79.45 to the dollar, and was down 4.5% to 86.45 against the euro.

During the trading session on Moscow Exchange, the rouble fell to 82.0950 against the dollar, from the 71 roubles hit on Friday which was its strongest since Nov. 11.

Late on Friday the central bank said it would scrap a 12% commission for buying foreign currency through brokerages from April 11 and lift a temporary ban on selling foreign exchange cash to individuals from April 18.

“The central bank gave markets a unequivocal signal that a further rouble strengthening was undesirable,” said Vladimir Evstifeev, an analyst at Zenit Bank.

The decision to scrap the 12% commission on FX operations means speculators will be able to trade again, Alor Brokerage said, adding market players were tending to lock in even small profits.

The rouble retains support from the obligatory conversion of 80% of FX revenues by export-focused companies as well as from high interest rates, even though the central bank unexpectedly cut its key rate from 20% to 17% last week.

ITI Capital analysts said Russia receives about $1.4 billion a day in export revenues and the rouble could firm further, given Russian capital controls and shrinking imports.

The central bank’s cut supported Russian OFZ government bonds. The finance ministry said at the weekend that it wouldn’t borrow on local or foreign debt markets this year.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov also said Russia would take legal action if the West tried to force it to default on its sovereign debt.

Yields on 10-year OFZs, which move inversely with their prices, fell to 10.45% on Monday. That was their lowest since Feb. 21, three days before Russia started what it calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine, triggering unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia.

On the stock market, the dollar-denominated RTS index fell 5.8% to 1,017.4 points and the rouble-based MOEX Russian index shed 1% to 2,566.6 points, with losses limited by the rouble’s slide.

(Reporting by ReutersEditing by David Goodman and Mark Potter)