Daily Insight-Hryvnia steady, stocks drop, banking system in focus

On Wednesday, the hryvnia held nearly steady on the Ukrainian FX market, with, according to UkrDealing, trading opening at 7.922-7.927/USD, the same rate as Tuesday\'s close, and closing at the same rate, with the strongest point reached during the day at 7.915-7.926. The NBU again bought dollars at the rate of 7.925/USD and revalued its official exchange rate for hryvnia to 7.9259/USD for Wednesday. The hryvnia depreciated slightly on the cash FX market, trading at 7.9025/USD for bid offers at the domestic interchange stations, and 7.9406/USD on ask offers. Ukraine\'s stock markets moved downward Tuesday, on the back of general negative sentiment in the global markets toward economies recently affected by the escalated sovereign risk in Greece, including Spain and Portugal, with the PFTS index declining 1.66%, to end the day at 1,013.14 points, and the UX stock exchange down 1.85%, to 2,543.82 points. Total turnover on the PFTS was up 12.3x from Tuesday\'s low, at US$101m (UAH801.2m), with the share of equity trading, at 1.82% of the total, state bonds representing 98.05%, corporate bonds comprising 0.11%, and municipal bonds 0.02%. The total amount of securities traded on the UX stock exchange was up from Tuesday\'s level, at US$13.75m (UAH109m).