Ukrainian Stock Market Trading Resumed After Two-Hour Halt

By Daryna Krasnolutska

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Ukraine's PFTS Stock Exchange resumed trading after a two-hour halt called because of today's slump in the PFTS Index.

Trading was suspended from 12:45 p.m. until 3 p.m. Kiev time, the bourse said in a statement on its Web site.

The 20-stock PFTS Index has lost 32 percent this quarter, the second-steepest slump among 88 equity indexes tracked by Bloomberg, as Russia's invasion of Georgia and the feud between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko shook investor confidence in the Ukrainian market.

``We decided to halt trading after quotes for more than 75 percent of the PFTS stocks fell in today's session,'' said Andriy Kolomiets, a spokesman for the PFTS Stock Exchange. ``The main cause is global stock market falls, especially in Russia, which our market tends to follow.''

Russia's RTS Index fell the most among 88 stock indexes tracked by Bloomberg today, capping its worst week since May 2006.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net.