Stocks report: A poor showing

Tomasz Jerzyk, technical analyst DM BZ WBK SA

Polish stocks lost ground at the end of April, but it was hard to pinpoint one proper reason for their weak performance. Global stock markets continued to push upwards, but this did not inspire investors in Poland.

The main WIG and WIG20 indices erased 2.5 percent on the week ending April 25, but small-cap stocks lost the most. Market breadth was extremely negative - only 68 stocks rose, while 292 fell on the week and nine remained unchanged. This suggests further downward selling pressure.

Earnings reporting season started in Poland on Monday and as always it was Millennium that revealed its Q1 figures first. The firm's numbers were better than the market consensus had expected, but it didn't help much and the  company's stock lost more than seven percent after the Q1 data was published.

Meanwhile, insulin-producer Bioton cut its 2008 revenue forecast considerably. The company blamed the weak US dollar for the move.

Food, construction and IT stocks were hard hit - their benchmarks lost more than four percent. Telecoms stocks lost the least.

In general it was a very poor week for WSE stocks and it seems that prices will continue to drop in the coming weeks. The May holiday might postpone this a little, as the market is closed on Thursday and Friday because of the national holidays. I expect slow trading and very little volume.