eToro took a look at the largest stock exchanges in the world, Europe, and our neighbors. The main index of the Polish stock exchange has been in negative territory since the beginning of the year and Poland is the only market among 17 major exchanges in the world in such a situation. When the WIG20 index was losing 1.11 percent, investors on the Stockholm stock exchange could enjoy an increase of 18.73 percent, in Amsterdam by 12.15 percent, and in Vienna by 11.28 percent. However, the increases mainly concerned the world's largest markets. DJ30, which brings together 30 of the largest companies from the USA, has had the best period in history when it broke new records and came close to the 34,000 points mark. The same applies to the wider US stock index S & P 500, which broke 4,000 points and continues to grow.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is also performing particularly well, with the DAX index which has increased by 11.62 percent since the beginning of the year. In Asia, the Nikkei increased by 7.81 percent, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng by 4.85 percent. Stock exchanges in Central Europe also perform better than WSE. PX in Prague increased by 7.58 percent, and BUX in Budapest increased by 3.49 percent.

"Usually, the index of the largest companies is the best barometer of the current and future economic situation on a given market. In Poland, however, the situation is different, as the WIG20 index has been largely dominated by companies with a significant share of the state. These companies are less profit-oriented than fully private entities, and sometimes even used for current state interventions in the market. Besides, the index also includes a significant representation of banks that remain uncertain about the fate of Swiss franc loans in their portfolios. This is the reason why WIG20 – although the prospects for the Polish economy are better than for many other economies in our ranking – is the only one in the red," Paweł Majtkowski from eToro, explained.

In his opinion, we should look for profits on the capital market among medium-sized Polish companies and diversify our investments in major markets outside Poland. 

(WBJ)