Banking bounce or Q3? BPH standing tall all the same

Erste Securities analyst, Grzegorz Zawada, says BPH's standing grew in anticipation of strong results for Q3. Bank president Józef Wancer has been stoking the fire with comments about the 'pleasing' results. According to banking analysts, BPH is going to post a net profit of nearly zł.174 million for the first three quarters of 2004, in comparison to zł.66.7 million for the same period in 2003. Zawada believes that the growth in BPH's standing is due to the general increase in investors' interest in the banking sector. However, DB Securities analyst Dariusz Górski claims that the standing in growth has nothing to do with bank's financial results. Górski believes the reduction in the PKO BP shares issue has led to a surge in interest in other companies from the sector. (Parkiet, p. 3) A.F.