Trade has a late burst after lows
Low trade volumes on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) last week could get a boost from positive inflation data released Friday, analysts said.
But then again global stock exchanges seem to be weighing especially heavily on investor sentiment in Warsaw
The broad-market WIG index saw its volume down 20.95% to zl. 461.2 million ($10.7 million) and was down in point terms to 18,234.3, a drop of 0.17%.
One index did see an unusual burst of activity on Friday, however. The NIF index measuring trading among National Investment Funds (NIF) was up 2.37% for the week.
"I think many people were transferring money from the IT sector to NIF and banks and old economy stocks," said Marcin Andrzejczuk, a broker with Amerbroker.
Arnold Teterycz, a broker with Citibrokerage, said the index, which saw no movement for months, is getting its push from speculative investors. The trend could carry over for an additional one to two months, he said. "It seems that the NIFs will be the peaks for next week."
But the overall index should react positively to better-than-expected annual inflation for August of 10.7% from July's two-year high of 11.6% and to a healthy outlook for money supply as revealed in Thursday figures, Teterycz said.
Several banks also saw stock prices on the upswing last week, Andrzejczuk said, naming Bank Slaski and WBK in particular, which saw prices up 3.94% and 7.30% to zl. 211 and zl. 22.90 per share.
Andrzejczuk could give no reason for the trend.
A Polish old economy stock to finish the week on an up-note was copper mining and telecom conglomerate KGHM Polska Miedz, which saw shares up 5% to zl. 31.50.
"The company had quite big volumes throughout the week," Andrzejczuk said. World copper prices have taken a recent leap and are now more than $2,000 per pound, a factor that's adding shine to the company's attractiveness, he said.
KGHM, the fifth largest stock by market value on the WSE, hit a two-year high Thursday.
Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN) Orlen, the nation's second-largest oil producer and distributor, ended the week down 0.50% at zl. 20.1 after the treasury announced earlier in the week it might consider allowing the country's number one oil firm, Rafineria Gdanska, to bid for a stake in PKN when it is privatized.
The market turned its back on the poor half-year results of Poland's largest beer brewer zywiec, which closed up 4.27% at zl. 297.
The market had little time to react and this could change next week, Teterycz said. For the first half of 2000, zywiec, controlled by the Dutch Heineken, recorded a net loss of zl. 64.2 million.
"It seems that zywiec has got problems, probably connected with EB," Teterycz said. EB, also controlled by the same group, has been winning over customers from zywiec.
The company, with connections to the Habsburg family, along with other brands such as Okocim, has been losing market share to small regional brands like Brok and larger mainstays like Lech, Teterycz said.
zywiec, which claims nearly 30% of the Polish beer market, reported that its consolidated operating profit for the first half of 2000 fell 76% to zl. 23.1 million
($5.4 million).
During the same period a year earlier, the brewer recorded zl. 5 million ($1.2 million) in net profits and zl. 96 million ($22.3 million) in operating profits.
