Kyiv-listed stocks kicked off the new year with a mixed performance. Geopolitics continue to be in investors’ focus, as Russia is insisting that NATO must never grant membership to Ukraine ahead of security talks with the United States this week. US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is set to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in Geneva today (Jan 10). Monday’s talks will be followed by a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday of the NATO-Russia council, representing the first such meeting since 2019. There will also be a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe chaired by Poland in Vienna.
Back on the stock market, the UX index inched down by 0.2% to 1735 points last week. The top liquid issue, UkrNafta (UNAF), added 2.2% to UAH 276 after the company said that it had initiated a process of paying the delayed dividend from 2018 profit. The dividend was approved at an impressive UAH 35.60 per share, with the ex-rights date set on 11 Jun 2021. Nevertheless, it is still unclear when the dividend will be actually paid to shareholders, as the company cited technical difficulties with paying this dividend through the Ukrainian depositary system.
In London, iron ore miner Ferrexpo (FXPO) gained 4.2% last week to close at GBp 312 following upward momentum in the iron ore price, which has risen from USD 112 to USD 126 per tonne for 62% Fe benchmark contracts. Iron ore prices rose as demand in China propelled spot prices of the metal to a 2-month high.
Ukrainian leading grain exporter Kernel (KER) was little-changed, edging up 0.3% to PLN 58.90 after the company announced that it will pay a USD 0.44 dividend (PLN 1.76) per share to shareholders in the register as of Feb 8. The actual dividend distribution will be made on Feb 15. This implies a modest dividend yield of 3.0%. Other Ukrainian agro stocks were mostly lower, with MHP (MHPC) decreasing by 0.9% to USD 6.72 and Astarta (AST) slipping by 1.2% to PLN 41.90 per share.
The hryvnia opened the year on a soft note, declining by 0.7% to 27.50 UAH/USD last week amid the ongoing geopolitical concerns. However, the National Bank encouraged the market with a report that the country’s foreign currency reserves stood at a solid level of USD 30.9bn as of Jan 1.
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