KYIV. Aug 6 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Trade in "junk" securities in Ukraine over the past 18 months amounted to UAH 400 billion, in particular on the organized market - UAH 15 billion, Head of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market Timur Khromaev said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

"Nearly UAH 400 billion is money the economy did not see," he said.

According to Khromaev, over the past ten days market capitalization dropped by three times and, given the recent decision of the regulator, capitalization presently stands at UAH 100 billion. He said the move towards market capitalization was baseless: for instance, a company valued at UAH 20 billion gave a trading volume of UAH 40 billion.

He said that over the past three months the regulator withdrew 78 issuers from the market, the total value of whose shares amounted to UAH 461 billion, which corresponds to 30% of GDP or equal to the planned revenues of the national budget for 2015.

He said that according to the established criteria, "junk" stocks are securities of issuers who have no income, whose assets consist of questionable financial instruments, and have a small staff or a level of wages which does not correspond with the company's activities.