New-look WSE

Starting March 19, the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) will introduce several new indices bringing the exchange in line with other European bourses, where criteria for listing on main indices is based on the value and number of shares in free-float trading.

According to the changes, the index listing the 20 biggest companies will remain the WIG20. Replacing the current MidWIG index of medium-sized companies will be the new mWIG40 index, containing 40 companies. The current small-company index, the WIRR, will be replaced by the sWIG80 index, which will include 80 firms.

"Owing to these new terms, we will deliver information about companies in indices in a readable and clear way," said Ludwik Sobolewski, the president of the WSE.

Besides the name change, some modifications also await the rules governing the functioning of indices. In a major change, all companies from both the official and parallel markets for which the value of free-floating shares is higher than EUR 1 (zł.3.89) million and whose number of free-floating shares exceeds 10 percent of the total number of shares, will enter the WIG index. (Previously, companies from parallel markets were not included.) Then, selected companies will be listed within the WIG20, mWIG40 and sWIG80 indicies. The remaining, smaller companies, will have to be satisfied with a general listing on the WIG, without a special index of their own.

The WSE's other indices, such as the TechWIG and the WIG Budownictwa will remain.

According to the new rules, the number of companies in the WIG index will increase from 161 to more than 250, while more companies will now be incorporated into sectoral sub-indices. The WSE hopes that these changes will pique investors' interest in smaller companies that are currently not listed on the main WIG index.