Ukrainian stock index on WSE rallies 5.4% on Trump-Putin call

MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) rose 5.43% to 507.91 on Friday morning on the previous evening's announcement that the U.S. and Russian presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, had agreed during their telephone call to meet in Budapest before long, Ukrainian media reported.

The main WIG20 index fell 1.81%.

The media said that according to WSE data, as of 12:45 p.m., the share price of Ukraine's biggest sugar producer, Astarta, had risen 3.45%. Milkiland and the agricultural holdings IMC, Agroton and KSG Agro were up 13.26%, 5.91%, 4.65% and 2.68%, respectively.

Kermel, the biggest Ukrainian seed oil producer, which is not part of the index due to its low free float, rose 2.47%. Coal Energy was up 17.02%.

On the London Stock Exchange, where retail investors have less influence than on the WSE, the Ferrexpo mining company's shares soared 10.08%, while the largest Ukrainian chicken producer, MHP, rose slightly at the start of trading before falling 3.06%.

There was no clear trend on Friday morning for Eurobonds, which had grown for several days in anticipation of Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the end of the week. Some bonds rose in price, while others fell up to 1.5%.

GDP warrants, which had risen to their late February level his week, fell 0.37% at the beginning of trading on Friday, to 81.35% of their notional value.

The WIG-Ukraine plummeted from 574.37 to 361.98 on the first day of the crisis on February 24, 2022 and then continued to decline, falling below 200 in May 2024. After Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency last autumn, the WIG-Ukraine grew initially from 240 to 350 and then rallied to 640-650 amid news on of the start of peace negotiations in mid-February 2025.

However, as optimism about an imminent agreement faded, the index dropped to 508.45 in early April. Announcements of plans for negotiations in Istanbul and Anchorage again lifted the index above 600, but it fell at the beginning of October to 475, its lowest since the beginning of February.