Investors' confidence in Elektrim shows
Investors stepped back from trading last week, watched the new minority government outline an agenda and waited for inflation and industrial output figures, analysts said.
The all-share WIG index stayed flat at 19,675.8 points, down 0.002% from the previous week while volume plummeted 30.27% to zl. 677.31 million ($154 million).
"The news was not bad, only a little bad," Pawel Kwiatkowski, a broker with Amerbroker, said of Thursday's 10.0% annual inflation figure for May, up from 9.8% in April. "The market was a little down, but rather stable ... I think in the beginning of next week it will be good."
Despite mostly uneventful trading, however, one stock did see its trade volume skyrocket.
"Right now it looks like Elektrim is the only company worth trading for investors," said Pawel Puchalski, a broker with Raiffeisen Capital & Investment Polska, mentioning that the stock saw nearly 20% turnover each day.
The telecom and power group, which finished the week up 2.29% at zl. 53.5 per share, saw 800,000 shares changing hands and was up 3.3% Friday after announcing Thursday it would try to settle differences with Deutsche Telekom over Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, of which Elektrim owns 51% and DT 45%.
Anybody not watching Elektrim was watching Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN) Orlen's second public offering, which saw share prices up just 0.92% from the week before at zl. 22. "One thing that is amazing right now is the level of leverages for purchases of PKN," Puchalski said. Some brokerage firms are offering an unheard of 1,500% leverage to those purchasing shares of the oil giant, he said.
Also, he said, small investors are being offered an extra share for every 10 they buy, but they must be held for at least a year to collect on the offer. Investors won't earn much on the offering, he said, because with so many investors buying so many shares, "everybody will only get a very small fraction of shares."
Meanwhile, Pierwszy Polsko-Amerykanski Bank (PPABank), which decided at its general shareholders meeting last week that it would change its name to Fortis Bank Polska at the end of the month, announced plans to float 5 million shares through a public rights issue. The subscription is expected to happen in the fourth quarter. The bank, which is 98.4% owned by Belgium-based Fortis Bank, is hoping to raise zl. 200 million ($45 million) to fund the bank's development.
"This is the minimum amount we can expect," said Malgorzata Ladecka, the director of the supervisory board office at PPABank. "We want to reach that amount by the middle of next year, but I don't know if the money (needed) will only come from that issue." Last Friday, the company's share price closed at zl. 31.70, up 9.31% on the week.
Artur Szeski, an analyst at CDM Pekao Securities, said he didn't see much logic in the bank's trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) any longer. "There are of course a few arguments in favor, but there are more against that," Szeski said. "Especially when the bank has no idea how to increase its liquidity." He said, referring to PPABank's decisions not to broaden its funding availability.
During the issue Fortis Bank can take over the whole issue if the price is attractive. "All depends on the issue price," Szeski said. PPABank is one of the WSE's least liquid stocks, not only in the banking sector, but in general.
