The difficult lot of individual investors
The stock exchange is the sole source of income for around 15 percent of individual speculators, according to a survey conducted by the Polish Individual Investors Association (SII). Their average rate of return last year amounted to 21.2 percent against a 30 percent WIG index increase.
The survey reveals that the main problem mentioned by investors is the shortage of liquidity at the Warsaw bourse and the negligence of minority shareholders' rights.
"Low liquidity is the greatest weakness of WSE - as many as 53 percent of respondents pointed to it in the survey, against 47 percent in 2004. It constitutes a great barrier for individual investors which proves the need for further privatization and polarization of the market," said Bartosz Dziemaszkiewicz, SII's vice-president.
"There are two kinds of investors relations - those concerning institutional clients do not apply to individual investors. In Poland good practices related to the respect of minority shareholders' rights are still far from European standards," he added.
Last year, the participation of domestic individual investors in public trading increased to 35 percent compared to 29 percent in 2003. The report also highlighted how the share of stocks in the portfolio of an average individual investor is growing steadily - in this years' survey it reached the level of 58 percent, which is three percent higher than the year before.
An average Polish investor is an educated, 35-year-old man who lives in a big city and has been investing in the stock exchange for the last six years.
The survey was conducted from March till May 2005 among 682 respondents who invested in the stock exchange at least once a month. (Reuters)
The survey reveals that the main problem mentioned by investors is the shortage of liquidity at the Warsaw bourse and the negligence of minority shareholders' rights.
"Low liquidity is the greatest weakness of WSE - as many as 53 percent of respondents pointed to it in the survey, against 47 percent in 2004. It constitutes a great barrier for individual investors which proves the need for further privatization and polarization of the market," said Bartosz Dziemaszkiewicz, SII's vice-president.
"There are two kinds of investors relations - those concerning institutional clients do not apply to individual investors. In Poland good practices related to the respect of minority shareholders' rights are still far from European standards," he added.
Last year, the participation of domestic individual investors in public trading increased to 35 percent compared to 29 percent in 2003. The report also highlighted how the share of stocks in the portfolio of an average individual investor is growing steadily - in this years' survey it reached the level of 58 percent, which is three percent higher than the year before.
An average Polish investor is an educated, 35-year-old man who lives in a big city and has been investing in the stock exchange for the last six years.
The survey was conducted from March till May 2005 among 682 respondents who invested in the stock exchange at least once a month. (Reuters)
