The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), which had been rapidly rising in recent days due to optimism about peace negotiations, plummeted by 8.07% on Wednesday morning following news of criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump directed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, bringing its value below pre-war levels at 558.30 points.
According to WSE data, the shares of Milkiland fell by 6.13% on Wednesday, while the agribusiness holdings "Agroton" and "IMK", located near the front lines, dropped by 10.86% and 5.42%, respectively. KSG-Agro saw a decline of 8.46%, and the country’s largest sugar producer, "Astarta", fell by 5.05%.
Shares of Coal Energy (all of which are included in the index) also lost value by 5%, despite having been the most appreciated in recent days, due to the halted operations of its mines because of the war.
Additionally, the stock price of the largest Ukrainian oil producer "Kernel" collapsed by 11.07%, although it is not part of the index due to its small free float.
On the London Stock Exchange, shares of the largest Ukrainian poultry producer, MHP, decreased by 3.13% since the start of Wednesday, while shares of the mining company Ferrexpo fell by 3.44%.
Pessimism is also evident in the eurobond market: depending on maturities, their prices have dropped by 0.7%-3.1%, and GDP warrants have decreased by 0.54%.
"It is becoming clear that we are unlikely to agree to their 'peace'. Therefore, we are apparently facing a long war or a loss of independence. The level of unpredictability has risen to the figures of February 2022. We hold on," described his sentiments after the meeting of the Russian and American delegations in Riyadh and Trump’s night speech, the founder of monobank, Oleg Gorokhovsky, in Telegram.
As reported, the WIG-Ukraine index fell from 574.37 points to 361.98 points on the first day of the war, February 24, 2024, and dropped below 200 points in May 2024.