Last week showed some "living-it-up" by dealers, which was
expressed in increasing trading volumes compared to the previous period.
The total volume of transactions in the Over-the-Counter Stock Trading
System (OCSTS) has grown almost by a factor of 3.5 to about Hr 2.5 million.
However, it might be said that the dealers exhibited maximal activity
at the beginning of the week. For instance, last Monday, concluded agreements
exceeded Hr 2 million. In the following days, the wait-and-see attitude
prevailed, and transactions were carried out with great caution and very
seldom (the daily volumes ranged from Hr 23,000 to Hr 160,000).
The daily OTCSE index without any fluctuations was smoothly sliding
down. Its maximum value for the last week, was again 22.75 points on Monday,
and the minimum was 21.62 points on Friday. The index value dropped by
4.96%.
We would like to remind you that October 1, 1997 (that is one year ago)
the OTCSE Association calculated its daily and weekly indices with a base
value of 100 points. The stagnation of the market which has lasted for
over one year affected the daily index, reducing it 4.61 times. Without
plunging into analytical studies, it can be said that the price for the
most liquid stock (which is used as a basis for calculating the index)
has dropped at least 4.6 times. As far as second and third echelon stock
is concerned, the fall in its quoted price has varied by 10 to more times.
The range of positions for which agreements were concluded could be
compared to the previous week of 15. Two of those were related to bonds,
one to NDCE, and the rest concerned corporate securities. Government bonds
had maturity periods of one week (228% annual interest rate) and two weeks
(158% annual interest rate). Since the Ministry of Finance has been completely
fulfilling its obligations in hryvnia terms thus far, the risk-profit ratio
has up to now been at an acceptable level. However, you never know the
next anti-crisis step our government is going to take.
Incidentally, government bonds accounted for 80.76% of transactions,
which is virtually a total week's turnover of the system. Corporate securities.
Most significant transactions were carried out with the old OCSTS favorites,
Donbasenerho (5.75%), Khartsyzk Pipe Mill (2.75%), Slavutych Brewery (2.41%),
Ukrnafta (1.94%), and Dniproenerho (1.74%). The purchase price for the
Khartsyzk Pipe Mill stock fell by 33%, Donbasenerho, by 7.27%, Ukrnafta,
by 0.23%, and for Dniproenerho, by 15.3%.






