OREANDA-NEWS. August 23, 2011. The execution of an August option for futures on the UX index. On August 15, 666 options for futures on the Ukrainian Exchange index were fulfilled totaling UAH 1.3 mln (USD 163.1 thnd). Call options with a strike price of 1800 as well as put options with a strike price of 1900-2300 were executed in accordance with market participants\" applications.

Ukrnafta (UNAF; RECOMMENDATION WITHDRAWN) stock collapsed last Friday, which is a monumental event on the Ukrainian stock market. After losing the usual support from some key market players, the company\"s shares lost about a quarter of their value – falling to UAH 475 per share over the course of only a few minutes. Despite the share price being restored somewhat during the day, Ukrnafta stock finished down 15.0% on Friday. The stock dropped 24%  during the week. Without explicating connections, we would like to note that Ukrnafta’s CEO Peter Vanhecke and Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov met last Friday. At that meeting, Mr. Azarov supported the company\"s plans to move forward with an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. However, he asked Ukrnafta to increase crude oil production in exchange for government support of this project.

Equity market. Ukrainian investors tried to change the direction of Ukrainian Exchange Index despite an absence of positive dynamics on stock exchanges around the world. The week lasting from August 15 to August 19 was characterized by market uncertainty. That is, the dynamics of the indicator were not determined by any news or facts emerging from the market, but rather by investor skepticism. Overall, the Ukrainian Exchange index slid 10.34% over the course of last week – dropping to 1634 points. The total trading volume on the market decreased to UAH 1.4 bln (USD 175.6 mln), including UAH 664.5 mln (USD 83.4 mln on the derivatives market, which is half of the prior week.

As before, trading activity was focused on stocks of two issuers: Motor Sich (MSICH; BUY) and Alchevsk Iron and Steel (ALMK; HOLD), with trading volumes amounting to UAH 140.5 (USD 17.6 mln) and UAH 132.3 (USD 16.6 mln) respectively. The top performing stocks were those that performed the poorest the previous week. As such, Krymenergo (KREN) and Bogdan Motors (LUAZ) gained 42.9% and 10.8% in share value respectively.

Ukrnafta (UNAF; RECOMMENDATION WITHDRAWN) and Stakhanov Railcar (SVGZ; BUY) were among the poorest performing in the UX Index - losing  24.16% and 20.84% in share value respectively.