Ukrainian stocks, eurobonds fall after news of postponed U.S.-Russia talks
The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE), which had risen for several consecutive days, fell by 2.40% to 510.58 points in early trading Wednesday following news the previous evening that the announced meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Budapest was being postponed, as was the meeting between Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, due to Russia’s unwillingness to halt hostilities. Meanwhile, the main WIG20 index rose by 1.05%.
According to WSE data, as of 12:53 p.m. Warsaw time, shares of Ukraine’s largest sugar producer Astarta dropped 2.99%, Milkiland fell 4.33%, and agricultural holdings KSG Agro, Agroton, and IMC declined by 2.40%, 2.29%, and 1.61%, respectively.
Shares of Coal Energy, whose mines have been idled due to the war, lost 4.48%, while Kernel, Ukraine’s largest sunflower oil producer, not included in the index due to its small free float, edged up 0.21%.
On the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which is less influenced by retail investors than the WSE, shares of iron ore producer Ferrexpo fell 6.57%, while shares of poultry giant MHP rose 1.06%.
As for eurobonds, their prices on the Frankfurt Exchange also declined by 1.25–2.14% on Wednesday after several days of growth, while GDP warrants remained virtually unchanged.
As reported earlier, the WIG-Ukraine index plunged from 574.37 to 361.98 points on February 24, 2024, the first day of the war, and dropped below 200 points in May 2024. After Trump’s election victory in autumn 2024, the index initially rose from about 240 to 350 points, and in mid-February 2025, on news of peace talks, it jumped to around 640–650 points.
However, after optimism about a quick peace agreement faded, WIG-Ukraine fell to 508.45 points in early April. Subsequent announcements of planned talks in Istanbul and Anchorage pushed it back above 600 points, but by early October it dropped again to around 475 points, its lowest level since early February.
Trump’s announcement last Thursday of a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest "in a few weeks," and his call for both sides to freeze the front line, drove the index up from 475 to 523.11 points, but it has now slipped back to 510.58 points.
