Excitement in the run-up to Christmas

For the stock exchanges around the world, 2023 ended with a flourish due to the growing conviction that the global economy has been picking up while interest rates and returns on government bonds are set to fall. The final week of the last year was marked by the increased faith that such a scenario is likely to play out over the coming quarters, and so the stock exchanges in Europe and America reacted to this by reaching new peaks. Almost all the indexes – from the Dow Jones in the US and the CAC40 in Paris – saw double-digit growth last year, as they enjoyed growth rates from the more modest teens to the rises of over 50 pct recorded by the Nasdaq. But amid the buoyancy of all these trading floors, the only fly in the ointment has turned out to be China, where the country’s stock market ended down on the year. The Warsaw Stock Exchange proved to be no exception to the growth seen across the world’s bourses. The WIG20 index ended 30 pct up over the year, which