KIEV, Oct. 1 – The State Property Fund has started preparing to hold an open auction-style tender to sell the state’s 92.79% stake in telecoms giant OJSC Ukrtelecom, the SPF reported in an official announcement in the government's Vidomosti Pryvatyzatsii privatization bulletin on Friday.

KIEV, Oct. 1 – Kiev-based Forum Bank has claimed that there has been an information attack against the bank: since the start of September, Ukrainian mass media have published bad and untrue information about the bank, reads a press release of Forum Bank.

KIEV, Oct. 4 – Prices of gasoline and diesel fuel in Ukraine could grow soon, and the pace of growth could be several kopecks per week, according to Kiev-based Psyche research center.

KIEV, Oct. 1 – Illegal tobacco imports are not a great problem for Ukraine, as tobacco is more likely to be illegally exported from Ukraine to the European Union, according to Ukraine's State Customs Service.

ALGERIA, Oct. 1 - Naftogaz Ukrayiny has submitted its application to bid for hydrocarbon properties in Algeria, Algerian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Chakib Khelil said at a press conference on Thursday.

KIEV, Oct. 1 - Ukraine's steel industry reduced finished roll output 27% year-on-year in January-September to 19.306 million tons, the Industrial Policy Ministry told Interfax.

The industry cut roll output 34% year-on-year in January-July and 30% in January-August, so the latest figures indicate that the severe decline in the industry is still slowing.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – The 83.56% rise in the PFTS index of the Ukrainian Stock Exchange in January-September 2009, to 553.29, placed it second in the world in terms of growth over the period.

"The upward trend of the Ukrainian stock market, which has been seen from the middle of Q2, was reinforced on the last day of September, when the index reached an annual maximum of 553.29 basic notches.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – Russian oil major Lukoil on Friday stopped its Ukrainian oil refinery, apparently protesting Ukraine’s plans to start massive imports of alternative Caspian Sea crude to one of its competitors.

Lukoil explained the move by the failure to reach agreement with UkrTransNafta, the state oil shipper, over supply routes, after the shipper had reversed one of its pipelines to start imports of Caspian crude.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – Cooperation between nuclear enterprises of Ukraine and Russia formerly linked in the Soviet era will permit both countries to successfully enter the global markets of fuel for nuclear power plants, Vasiliy Konstantinov, vice-president of Russia's TVEL, believes.

KIEV, Oct. 2 – The new strategy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Ukraine is designed to assist the country "in meeting key transition challenges, in particular, diversification of the production base and overall improvement of the country’s competitiveness, development of local capital markets, continuation of energy sector reform and strengthening corporate governance and transparency."