And if retail investors continue to bail, as they have done during the past couple of weeks, this absence of institutional and retail interest could create a challenge for equities in the near term.

FORBES: Days Of Technical Reckoning Ahead

Mr Gilman cautions that Russia's fundamental institutional problems, including the absence of much rule of law, still need to be properly addressed.

ECONOMIST: The Russian default

The absence of price data creates particular difficulty for institutional investors that are required to mark their portfolios to market: investors in Mexico and South Korea have got around this by purchasing price quotes from independent vendors.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

They were also protesting more generally against the return to power of Mr Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after a 12-year absence.

BBC: Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto inaugurated as president