WSE suffers a "Black Thursday" and loses 6.1%

As a result its indices recorded the largest decrease in six years with the main WIG index losing 6.1%. Since the beginning of August, the value of shares in the portfolios of investment and pension funds dropped by zł.11.5 billion. This was a terrible day for Quantum Software's debut whose shares lost 13.4% during the day. Shareholders in the largest companies present on the bourse Bioton, Polimex and TVN suffered major losses amounting to 15.3%, 11% and 8.5% respectively. "This is all due to the US real-estate crisis," said Błażej Bogdziewicz, investment advisor with BZ WBK. For almost two weeks indices in New York have been  continuously falling as investors are afraid that a breakdown in the mortgage market will affect the whole economy. "Everyone wanted to sell shares [on Thursday]. Small players played a major role in an attempt to leave the floor," said Sebastian Buczek, president of ING TFI. It was clear that financial investors were withdrawing from Poland, but the złoty remained solid and lost only a few groszy in relation to USD and EUR. Analysts believe that the falls are far from over, but are confident that over the long term shares will make up their losses. This is due to the fact that foundations of the Polish economy, on which the results of companies and their share price depend, are good. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A2, B1-B3, B8; Parkiet, p. 1; Puls Biznesu, p. 1; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 1) M.M.