Stocks report: Media stocks lead WSE lower

Polish stocks lost ground last week, as all WSE indices finished in the red. The blue-chip heavy WIG20 index dropped by 4.1 percent, while the overall WIG index shed nearly 2.9 percent.

It was a shorter trading week due to the national holiday on Thursday, but the negative mood on US stock markets pushed investors to empty their portfolios. Investors' decisions were also negatively affected by earlier weakness linked with negative breadth on the market (more declining stocks than advancing) and plenty of stocks setting new 52-week lows.

Media stocks were again under selling pressure and the media sector index plunged by 7.2 percent on the week. This time private television broadcaster TVN, which said that it was buying a stake in digital platform "n" for R95 million, caused the drop. The company also bought some of the platform's debts and declared that it would invest further in the firm. According to one media analyst, the price was too high, as it was based on far too optimistic assumptions about the growth of "n" in the coming years. TVN lost 13.6 percent on the week.

Media conglomerate Agora lost more than four percent, while IT and oil companies underperformed.

Bioton was the best pick among blue-chip stocks and its stock price surged after Polaris Finance BV disclosed it controls more than 10 percent of company's votes. Polaris is linked with tycoon Zygmunt Solorz-Żak, who controls Polsat as well as WSE-listed Cyfrowy Polsat.

Tomasz Jerzyk, technical analyst DM BZ WBK SA