Ukrainian stocks rising on optimism about possible conclusion of crisis

MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) - The WIG-Ukraine index grew 5.29% to 558.58 on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) on Thursday amid news on possible top-level negotiations to bring the crisis to an end soon, while the WSE's key WIG20 index rose by 2.05%, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the WSE.

The stocks of Astarta, Ukraine's leading sugar producer, rose 4.06%, those of Milkiland 11.96%, the Agroton, KSG-Agro, and IMC agricultural holdings rose 11.02%, 10.33%, and 3.83%, respectively, and those of Coal Energy were up 14.90%.

All of the abovementioned securities are part of the index calculation base.

The stocks of Kernel, Ukraine's leading vegetable oil producer, which are not included in the index calculation base because of a small free-float, rose by 2.27%.

On the London Stock Exchange, which does not see as much influence of retail investors as the WSE, the stocks of MHP, Ukraine's leading chicken producer, grew by 3.85%, and those of the Ferrexpo mining company were up 19.13% on Thursday.

As for Eurobonds, the 2029 Eurobonds rose 2.2% and the 2034 Eurobonds 4.54% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, while Ukraine's GDP-linked warrants declined by 1.28% to 75.8% of notional value.

As reported, WIG-Ukraine plummeted from 574.37 to 361.98 on February 24, 2022 and then continued to decline to below 200 in May 2024. After Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency last fall, WIG-Ukraine grew initially from 240 to 350 and then rallied to 640-650 amid news on a start of peace negotiations in mid-February 2025. However, as optimism about an imminent conclusion of peace was fading, the index dropped to 508.45 in early April. An announcement of plans for negotiations in Istanbul again drove the index to nearly 625; however, it has fluctuated between 544 and 523 in the past few weeks.