Captial Markets

   The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) launched a secondary T-bond market with same-day settlement options to attract new players into the sector, boosting liquidity and transparency, officials said. Trading in Polish treasury paper now concentrates in the non-regulated interbank market, with average daily turnover at zl. 1.5 billion ($321 million). On the exchange, only zl. 20 million ($4.44 million) worth of T-bonds change hands daily. WSE officials said the new, also non-regulated system, which removes the need for an intermediary and provides open access to prices for participants, should ease the arduous settlement process that now hampers exchange trade. At present, the WSE conducts only spot-next T-bond transactions and has several middlemen, who push up costs. Poland's treasury market is poorly developed. The over-the-counter sector is not transparent. "We hope that the exchange's new offer will remedy this," said WSE head Wieslaw Rozlucki. "I hope pension funds, insurers and other institutional investors, which now often hold bonds until maturity or use short-term paper as a cash equivalent, will join this market, although their involvement has been so slow so far," he said. Under the new system, trading will take place from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. local time and transactions made before 10.30 a.m. will have the option of same-day settlement. The WSE has so far nominated two market makers, Pekao bank and its brokerage unit CDM Pekao. The minimum transaction value was set at zl. 500,000.

   Shareholders of Poland's leading building group Budimex, controlled by Spain's Ferrovial, agreed to increase the firm's capital through an issue of nearly 4.26 million new shares. "All shareholders present at the meeting backed the planned share issue," said Budimex spokesman Waldemar Mierzwa. Budimex, which now has 21.28 million shares outstanding, has said it plans to raise some zl. 100 million ($21.8 million) from the issue, largely to finance its stake increase in roadbuilder Dromex.