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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Daily Market Brief

Market Comment

The downward trend that prevailed on international exchanges Wednesday (Aug 18) didn’t affect Ukrainian equity markets, which continued to move upwards. The UX exchange erased a stumble in the morning to add 0.47% by the closing bell. Trading volume totaled nearly UAH 72 mln. Metals and mining names ended modestly higher: ALMK +0.33%, AVDK +0.28%, AZST +0.74%, ENMZ +1.05%, YASK +1.69%. Prices for GenCos moved slightly up with Centerenergo (CEEN) adding +0.49% and Zakhidenergo climbing 0.42%. All other blue chips advanced (MSICH +0.78%, UNAF +0.70%, USCB +0.42%, UTLM +0.73%) excluding Raiffeisen Bank Aval (BAVL) that lost 0.06%.

On international markets, Ukrainian food processing stocks moved mostly higher: MHPC LI +0.07%, AST PW +0.71%, KER PW unch. Sentiment changed for oil and gas names as Cadogan pared some of the previous day’s losses to close up 3.08%, while JKX Oil & Gas (JKX LN -0.28%) and Regal (RPT LN) came under selling pressure. Ferrexpo (FXPO LN) extended gains by adding 1.67%.

The Ukrainian Eurobond market saw a rise in activity Wednesday. Two-way flows were recorded for sovereigns, which closed virtually unchanged on solid trading volumes. Naftogaz surprisingly outperformed the rest of the market, adding more than a point. In the corporate sector, EXIMUK 15 opened stronger, but faded during the session to close flat. PRBANK traded lower, while DTEK and MHPSA closed unchanged.

Russian sovereigns continued to chart an upward trend, closing 0.5 p.p. higher on the long end. In the corporate sector, action was generally balanced with light profit taking observed at the end of the day.