Kiev - Ukrainian capital markets on Tuesday lost some 5 per cent of value in one of the single worst days of trading in a decade, the Interfax news agency reported. Shares bought and sold at theformer Soviet republic's top PFTS exchange fell 5.15 per cent in overall value, with traditional blue chip stocks leading the downward move.
Zaporizhtransformator, a power generation machines company, performed the worst, its shares plummeting 24 per cent in value.
Other loss leaders included electricity utilities in the cities Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, a natural gas distribution company in the Crimea peninsula, and a steel mill in Zaporizhia - all sinking from 11 to 14 per cent over the course of the day.
The bear trend cut a wide swath through Ukraine's normally strong heavy industrial sector, with top rail car factories, bus assembly plants, aircraft engine companies, and the India-owned steel mill ArcelorMittal all posting losses as high as seven per cent.
Trading was described as "extremely high" in volume.
Ukrainian capital markets had been falling steadily since the beginning of the year in the face of rising food and energy prices, export earnings undermined by state props to the national currency, and a domestic credit crunch.
Trading experts linked the substantial one-day contraction on Tuesday to poor performance by US stock markets, and bad economic news worldwide reducing available capital for a market like Ukraine's.
"They (PFTS stock value) fell following the bad international results. All the world's markets feel bad ... but we (Ukrainian stock markets) are less liquid so our market fell more strongly (on Tuesday)," said Anatasia Nazarenko, spokeswoman for the Concord Capital trading house.
Ukraine's market will continue to contract until international capital flow stabilises, she predicted.
Overall stocks listed in Ukraine's PFTS had by July lost some 45 per cent of their January face value.
Ukrainian stocks increased in value an average 35 per cent in 2007, making the country's capital markets one of Europe's most profitable at the time.
