Interfax reports the Russian defence ministry said it sank two escort vessels that were accompanying ships transporting weapons to Ukraine.

Sources say Silver Lake is in talks to acquire enterprise cloud applications company Workday; negotiations remain ongoing.

Midday close: Chinese onshore main futures contracts were mixed. Coking coal rose more than 4%; rapeseed oil gained over 3%; low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) and lithium carbonate were up nearly 3%. Fuel oil, benzene, polysilicon, industrial silicon, methanol and styrene (EB) advanced more than 2%. On the downside, palladium fell over 3%; Shanghai silver and stainless steel (SS) declined more than 2%; platinum, Shanghai gold, Shanghai nickel, foundry aluminum and Shanghai aluminum slipped over 1%.