Analysts from Concorde Capital, ICU and state-owned Oschadbank, as well as expert Eric Naiman, interviewed byInterfax-Ukraine, said that the sharp rise in prices for Ukrainian stocks and Eurobonds on Thursday of this week was due to speculative demand amid news of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“There was speculative demand for Ukrainian assets – Eurobonds and stocks – in the hope of an early truce. The very fact of its signing (if and when it happens) is likely to be the peak of prices,” commented Nayman.
Oleksandr Parashchiy, head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital, said that the situation with the active growth of Ukrainian asset prices “looks like a misunderstanding”.
“Obviously, they are buying up everything Ukrainian amid speculation about an imminent peace. The funniest (or saddest) thing is that since the beginning of the year, shares of companies whose assets are entirely located in Luhansk and Donetsk regions have grown the most: “Agroton – +51%, Coal Energy – 57%,” he said.
Sergiy Shvets, Head of the Investment Department of Oschadbank, noted that in general, Ukrainian companies demonstrate good financial results, which is reflected in revenue growth. The expert believes that the upward trend in prices is natural.
“However, I don’t see any reason for a sharp rise in stocks this week. Except, perhaps, for optimistic expectations of a super quick end to the war,” Shvets concluded.
Vitaliy Sivach, a trader at ICU Group, also attributed this week’s rise in Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to the growing likelihood of a peace agreement with Russia, which the market took as a signal.
“If a peace deal is indeed reached, it will be a powerful catalyst for all Ukrainian assets. We are already seeing a rally in sovereign bonds, as the market has been expecting this scenario for a long time – since Trump was elected president. As a result, Ukrainian assets have been growing for three months in a row,” Sivach comments.
He assesses the probability of the deal as high and believes that if it happens, Ukrainian stocks will rise under the influence of several factors: increased company revenues and revised market valuations.
“First, the discount due to military risks will disappear. Secondly, growing revenues will allow the market to pay a premium for such assets. That is why we are now witnessing active growth, and in a favorable scenario, WIG-Ukraine can easily rise to 600 points. If everything calms down on the battlefield, everything will depend on the developments after the elections, but 600 points is far from the ceiling,” Sivach said.
For his part, ICU financial analyst Mykhailo Demkiv noted the rise in prices for Ukrainian Eurobonds based on the news of possible peace talks.
“Their value has been rising over the past 3 days in the range of 4.5-8%, as investors see the end of the hot phase of the war as increasingly likely,” he emphasized.
The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) jumped by 19.6% on Thursday and added another 1.75% on Friday to 439.27 points. The growth on Friday was driven by a rise in the price of IMC and Astarta Holding shares by 2.86% and 0.71%, respectively, as the share of these companies in the index is 43.965% and 35.393%, respectively.
Meanwhile, shares of Ferrexpo and MHP on the London Stock Exchange on Friday rose by another 9.43% and 1.49%, respectively.
At the same time, Ukrainian sovereign bonds, after rising on the previous days, corrected in price by 0.52-0.98% on Friday.
Ukraine has mineral resources, but “this does not mean that we give them away to anyone, even to strategic partners,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
“We have mineral resources. This does not mean that we give them away to anyone, even to strategic partners. It is about partnership. Invest money. Invest. Let’s develop this together and make money. And the main thing is the security of the Western world, the European continent. That all this will not go to these thieves – Russia plus their allies,” Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters, which was posted on the telegram channel.
According to the president, Russia has seized less than 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources.
“If we assume that about 20% of our land has been seized, they certainly have not seized 20% of our mineral resources. So far, it is less,” the President said.
At the same time, he emphasized that the rest of Ukraine’s resources are in dire need of protection: “We need to stop Putin and protect what we have.”
“A lot in Dnipro region, a lot in central Ukraine and in the west. Unfortunately, we lost coal, but I know that they also lost a lot there, because they did not know what to do with the mines, they flooded many of them,” Zelensky added.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed ambassadors to the Republic of Moldova and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
The relevant decrees No. 77/2025 and No. 78/2025 were published on the President’s website.
Thus, Paun Rogovei was appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Moldova.
At the same time, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Argentine Republic Yurii Klymenko was appointed ambassador to the Eastern Republic of Uruguay with concurrent appointment.
In addition, the President appointed Ambassador to Hungary Fedir Shandor as Ukraine’s representative to the Danube Commission on a part-time basis. By Decree No. 75/2025, the President dismissed Lyubov Nepop from this position.
The leading domestic retailer of household appliances and electronics Comfy (Comfy Trade LLC) received UAH 47 billion 720.9 million in revenue in 2024, which is 27.1% higher than in 2023, the company’s press service toldInterfax-Ukraine.
It emphasized that 2024 was the first year when the company exceeded $1 billion in revenue. Last year, the company paid UAH 2 billion to the state budget, which is twice as much as in the previous year.
In 2024, Comfy opened eight new stores in Oleksandria, Berdychiv, Khodosivka, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and even frontline Zaporizhzhia, and also restored stores in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Irpin that were damaged by Russian missiles.
In addition, Comfy updated all existing stores to reflect changes in customer demand and behavior and assortment.
In 2024, the reformatting tasks included updating the online order pickup area. Thanks to active development, Comfy has created more than half a thousand jobs across the country.
The retailer, together with the Prometheus platform, launched a free professional course “Marketing Manager” for Ukrainians who lost their jobs as a result of the war. The retraining program has already been completed by 500 people.
In addition, in 2024, the retailer donated UAH 28.6 million to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the amount of aid has reached more than UAH 160 million.
According to Opendatabot, Comfy Trade LLC is owned by Comfy Holdings Limited (100%, Cyprus), with Stanislav Ronis and Svitlana Gutsul as the ultimate beneficiaries.
In January, DTEK Energy’s coal mining enterprises commissioned the first two new longwalls this year, the energy holding said in a press release on Wednesday.
“We have to think not only about this heating season, but also prepare for the summer consumption peaks and the next winter. We are working as a team – power engineers, miners and machine builders. We are already commissioning coal longwalls to ensure a stable supply of resources for our TPPs,” said DTEK Energy CEO Oleksandr Fomenko.
In 2024, the company’s investments in Ukrainian coal mining amounted to UAH 7.5 billion. These funds were spent on the construction and repair of capital mine workings, completion of coal faces, equipping mines with tunneling equipment, underground mine transport and projects to maintain production facilities.
As reported, DTEK Energy’s machine builders manufactured and repaired almost 1.1 thousand units of mining equipment in 2024. The key products include 11 new roadheaders and shearers.
“DTEK Energy provides a closed cycle of electricity generation from coal. As of January 2022, the company’s installed capacity in thermal generation amounted to 13.3 GW. The company has established a full production cycle in coal mining: coal mining and enrichment, mechanical engineering, and maintenance of mine equipment.
Currently, most of DTEK Group’s thermal generation facilities have been destroyed as a result of Russian attacks.
The international financial service NovaPay (TM NovaPay) for 9 months. 2024 has doubled the number of its own POS-terminals in Nova Poshta offices, bringing their number to 5,790 devices, the service’s press service reports.
“NovaPay is expanding its terminal fleet. In nine months, NovaPay has doubled the number of its own POS terminals in Nova Poshta offices, bringing their number to 5,790 devices,” the service’s press service said on Thursday.
Currently, 60% of all POS-terminals installed in Nova Poshta offices are from NovaPay. Each branch has at least one of the financial service’s own terminals, the press service said.
“A few years ago, we decided to invest in creating our own network of POS terminals. We keep a high pace of terminal fleet development and have already seen noticeable results. The customer service time has decreased from 22 to 13 seconds, and the number of failures has decreased. And most importantly, we are less dependent on third-party providers,” the press service quoted Alexey Ruban, NovaPay’s Chief Innovation Officer, as saying.
According to him, by building its own network of POS terminals in the country, the company was able to optimize processes and significantly save on commissions, directing the saved funds to further develop products and offers for customers.
By the end of 2025, NovaPay plans to increase the number of POS terminals by another 2.5 thousand and enter the open market.
Earlier it was reported that NovaPay made 418 million transfers in 2024, which is 18% more than in 2023. According to the press service of NovaPay on Tuesday, the total volume of transfers through the system in 2024 reached UAH 308.5 billion, which is 31% more than in 2023.
“NovaPay (TM NovaPay) is an international financial service that is part of the NOVA group of companies and has been providing online and offline payment services in more than 3,600 Nova Poshta branches for over 12 years. The service was the first non-bank financial institution in Ukraine to receive an extended license from the NBU, which allowed it to open accounts and issue cards.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of December 1, 2024, NovaPay LLC issued 449.11 thousand payment cards, of which 123.34 thousand were active (at least one transaction in November). With a share of 0.22%, the company ranked 17th in the market, but still lags far behind the leaders PrivatBank (29.28 million) and mono (9.86 million active cards). At the same time, at the beginning of 2024, NovaPay issued only 13 thousand cards.
In addition, the company had 10.71 thousand installed payment terminals at the beginning of December, compared to 3.43 thousand at the beginning of the year, and installed the first 10 self-service devices. In terms of the number of payment terminals, NovaPay with a 2.1% share overtook Ukrposhta with its 1.4% share and ranked fifth in the market, where the undisputed leader is PrivatBank with a 60.7% share.
