Deeper correction soon

The beginning was quite good due to a number of factors such as positive sentiments on foreign stock exchanges and successful voting on the first bill on Hausner's public finance bills. As a result the WIG index crossed the 24200 points mark. The terrorist attacks in Madrid on 11th March caused the favourable trend to change for the worse. Though, the Polish stock exchange didn't react so visibly as foreign ones, there were no further increases. The WIG- 20 index slid slightly to 1700 points and then held steady. Analysts are expecting deeper correction soon. As regards construction companies, results shown by Budimex were weaker than expected. If there had not been the sale of an office building in Warsaw, the company would have recorded even worse results for 2004. However, it ended 2003 with net profit of 46.7 million zlotys. CEO of Budimex claims that an improvement in its results is expected due to developer business in larger Polish cities. At the beginning of March such companies as Mostostal Zabrze and Mostostal Eksport recorded a speculative rise. In spite of being in poor economic health (loss in 2003), their prices have reached the highest levels since 2002. Meanwhile Dutch-Israeli developer GTC Poland is planning to trade for the first time on the WSE in the coming months. Value of the planned IPO will come to some 100 mln. dolars. GTC Poland is one of the largest real estate developers in Poland, constructing and managing office buildings, shopping, and residential projects in Warsaw (Galeria Mokotów), Poznań, and Kraków. In 2000 GTC made an unsuccessful attempt to go public, but due to bad conditions at the WSE, IPO was put off.

Contributed by:

Mirosław Kuk