Publicly listed companies fair better in 2000 first quarter than last year

The first quarter of this year has turned out to be more beneficial for the bulk of publicly traded Polish companies than the first quarter last year. Preliminary quarterly reports shows an increase in net financial results for 13 out of 19 sectors listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The list includes among others trade, light industry and food, electro-machinery and the paper industry, which incurred losses last year. In some cases the growth has been largely determined by the improved financial conditions of the leaders in a sector, such as Elektrim S.A. in trade or KGHM Polska Miedz in metallurgy. Overall market conditions are still improving and even in the sectors where the net profits dropped, there are no cases of firms which turned last year's gains into losses. However, this quarter was not good for Zywiec brewery, which cast a pall on the overall performance of the sector. The insurance sector is riddled with contrasts with Warta's net profits growing threefold to zl. 28.9 million and Compensa losing zl. 25 million. P.S. (Rzeczpospolita, page B2) P.S.