2014-01-07 18:28:55

The Year 2013 on WSE

Warsaw, 7 January 2014

The Year 2013 on Warsaw Stock Exchange

PRESS RELEASE

  • Growth of turnover in equities several times higher than the European average
  • PLN 5,135 million of IPOs (Main Market)
  • PLN 2,617 million of SPOs (Main Market)
  • PLN 4,379 million of bond issues (Catalyst)
  • Implementation of the state-of-the-art trading system UTP (phase 1)
  • Introduction of a new WSE main index, WIG30
  • Initiated talks on potential merger of WSE with CEESEG
  • Acquisition of a stake in Aquis Exchange
  • Broad reform of NewConnect 
  • Solution to the penny-stock problem
  • Launch of the Capital Warsaw project: promotion of the capital market and Warsaw
  • New corporate growth strategy WSE.2020
  • Capitalisation of domestic companies on the Main Market increased by 13 percent year on year to PLN 593.5 billion
  • Average trading value per session at PLN 891 million, an increase of 18 percent year on year
  • Strong growth in the number of issuers listed on WSE: 23 new listings on the Main Market, 42 on NewConnectt

The year 2013 on Warsaw Stock Exchange was a time of growth, change and innovation. Growing activity on the primary and secondary markets, a new trading system, a new blue-chip index, an investment in Aquis Exchange, merger talks with CEESEG, a solution to the penny-stock problem, new derivative instruments, launch of the Capital Warsaw Project, and - last but not least - the new growth strategy WSE.2010 confirm the position of WSE as the CEE leader, a safe exchange which is increasingly attractive to local and international investors and issuers year after year.

65 companies were newly listed on the markets operated by WSE, including 23 companies on the Main Market where the aggregate value of IPOs was PLN 5,135 million and that of SPOs was PLN 2,617 million. Bonds newly listed on Catalyst stood at PLN 4,379 million.

Liquidity on the secondary market also improved significantly. The value of trading on WSE equities market (EOB - Electronic Order Book) increased by ca. 17% year on year in 2013, compared to an average increase of ca. 3% on the other European exchanges[1].

WSE implemented a new trading system, Universal Trading Platform (UTP) in mid-April. The product acquired from NYSE Technologies is the most important infrastructure project on the Polish capital market in many years. The implementation of UTP enabled expansion of the product range and introduction of new types of services. The UTP trading system also opened the Polish capital market to new trading techniques (algorithmic trading).

The effective launch of UTP enabled expansion of the derivatives market. New categories of instruments were added to WSE's offer including futures contracts on WIBOR reference rates and on Treasury bonds; stock options will be introduced to trading in 2014. In a longer term, WSE's position in derivatives trading will be reinforced with the implementation of a separate trading system dedicated to derivative instruments.

"We have replaced the core element of our infrastructure: the trading system. The implementation of UTP, which is one of the most modern trading systems world-wide, allows us to offer a new quality of exchange services to market participants. The technology advantage is key in our very competitive world. With the UTP implementation, we have joined the vanguard of global exchanges. We can now safely look forward and set new challenges for ourselves: among others, we will initiate the second phase of the UTP project in 2014 - the implementation of the derivatives trading system," said Adam Maciejewski, President of the Management Board of WSE.

A new main index of Warsaw Stock Exchange, WIG30, was introduced in September. The index includes the 30 biggest and most liquid stocks listed on WSE. It is a better reflection of the growth of the Polish economy and its sectoral structure, as well as the dynamic expansion of the Polish capital market over the past years.

"We implemented UTP in full knowledge that infrastructure is important but it is not the key success factor. We need a high quality product: a broad offer of a liquid market in equities, bonds and a range of financial instruments. In order to expand our offer, last September we introduced WIG30, the new main index of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. This was a change symbolic not only of the main market index of WSE but of the whole Polish economy," said WSE President.

In August 2013, WSE signed an agreement to acquire 30 percent of Aquis Exchange Ltd., a UK multilateral trading facility. The Aquis platform launched its offer on the European market on 26 November 2013. In the first phase, the company offers trade in the stock of the biggest companies in the UK, France and the Netherlands included in FTSE 100, CAC 40 and AEX 25. Aquis Exchange will support trade in equities on 14 European markets.

"We expanded our footprint well beyond Poland last year. The investment in Aquis seems at first sight to be a simple attempt at diversification of our services. In fact, however, it is a rather complex and ambitious pan-European project which, together with our other international plans, may in near future place WSE in a higher league of global exchanges. It also gives a foretaste of our new strategy, WSE.2020," said Adam Maciejewski.

Guided by the same goal, Warsaw Stock Exchange has initiated talks aiming at consolidation of exchanges in the entire CEE region through the project of a potential merger of WSE with the CEESEG holding.
In the first half of 2013, Warsaw Stock Exchange decided to introduce major modifications to NewConnect regulations and took other measures necessary to improve the quality and safety of trading on NewConnect. WSE designed the NewConnect reform taking into account many opinions of investors and other market participants; this led to the formation of the NCIndex30 which includes the biggest and most liquid stocks on the market. The index was very popular with investors and gained 43.9% by the year's end.

In December, WSE made decisions which regulate the segment of penny stocks listed on the WSE Main Market. The modifications are designed to gradually eliminate the problem of listed stocks whose price remains below the penny-stock level in the long term, and in consequence to encourage listed companies to change that situation.

WSE announced the new portfolio of the responsible companies index RESPECT for the seventh time. 23 companies listed on the Main Market were positively evaluated for corporate social responsibility and included in the new index portfolio. Warsaw Stock Exchange, listed on WSE, is one of them.

At the year's end, the Exchange Management Board adopted a resolution amending the company's dividend policy. Starting with the distribution of profit for the financial year 2013, WSE will strive to pay out dividend at 30% to 50% of the consolidated net profit of the WSE Group. Previously, the dividend was based on the separate profit of WSE. The Exchange has paid out to the shareholders close to PLN 230 million in dividend over the past three years, translating into an average annual dividend yield of 4.2 percent.

The Exchange Supervisory Board approved the new corporate strategy, WSE.2020 in late December 2013.
Another major initiative is the Capital Warsaw project initiated in August 2013. Its goal is to strengthen the positive image of the capital market and to promote Warsaw as the capital hub of Central and Eastern Europe.

"Building the Warsaw Capital City requires professional efforts, imagination, co-operation of diverse communities, and social support. The Capital Warsaw project is an umbrella term for initiatives taken by everyone aspiring to reach that goal," said Adam Maciejewski, President of the Management Board of WSE.

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[1] Data for January-November 2013/2012


The Year 2013 on WSE: Statistics

The main indices closed the year at a relatively minor year-on-year change: WIG30 at -1.8% and WIG20 at -7.0%. The WIG30TR index, which is a total return index, gained 2.9%. The SME indices mWIG40 and sWIG80 gained much more: 31.1% and 37.3%, respectively.

The fastest-growing sector indices in 2013 were: WIG-CONSTRUCTION (+33.5%), WIG-MEDIA (+31.0%), WIG-IT (+21.9%), WIG-CHEMICAL (+20.6%) and WIG-BANKS (+20.5%). The worst performing indices included WIG-COMMODITIES (-32.1%), WIG-FOOD (-11.4%) and WIG-FUEL (-10.0%).

The NewConnect market index, NCIndex, gained 10.0%. The index of the most liquid stocks on NewConnect, NCIndex30, gained 43.9%.

The number of companies listed on the WSE Main Market and on NewConnect grew in 2013. The number of companies listed on the Main Market increased from 438 at the end of 2012 to 450; there were 23 new listings in 2013. The capitalisation of domestic companies on the Main Market grew by 13.0% to PLN 593.5 billion while the total capitalisation of local and foreign companies grew by 15% to PLN 840.8 billion. 42 companies were newly listed on NewConnect in 2013 and the total number of listed companies increased by 3.7% to 445. The total capitalisation of local and foreign companies on NewConnect was PLN 11 billion.
More foreign companies decided to become listed on WSE in 2013. The 58th foreign company was newly listed in late December; 57 foreign companies were listed on WSE at the year's end, including 46 companies on the Main Market and 11 on NewConnect.

WSE reported a much higher value of trading in equities in 2013. The average value of trading per session on the Main Market was PLN 891 million, an increase of 18%. The turnover on NewConnect decreased by 17.6% to PLN 3.8 million per session.

The average volume of trading in futures per session on WSE increased by 12% while the average volume of trading in options per session increased by 14%.

The Catalyst market reported a strong growth of the main parameters in 2013. The number of issuers increased to 175 and the value of issues increased by 12.6% to a record-high PLN 58.9 billion. The average value of trading per session increased by more than 95.8% to PLN 8.9 million.


2013 MILESTONES
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14.02
WSE introduces amendments to the ATS Rules initiating the NewConnect market reform

28.03
WSE and Brokerage Houses reach an agreement on temporary shortening of the trading hours on the Warsaw Stock Exchange

15.04
First exchange trading session in the new trading system, Universal Trading Platform (UTP)

01.06
Peter Niklewicz is appointed WSE Representative in London

18.06
Appointment of the WSE Science Committee

21.06
Appointment of the Debt Market Committee

02.07
Appointment of the Best Practice Committee

17.08
"Exchange for Warsaw" concert (featuring Lech Janerka) inaugurates the Capital Warsaw project

19.08
Acquisition of a stake in Aquis Exchange, a UK company to organise trade in European equities as an MTF

30.08
Sixth anniversary of NewConnect

02.09
Launch of the UTP co-location and High Performance Access (HPA) service

23.09
Start of publication of WIG30 and WIG30TR indices

23.09
Introduction to trading of WIG20 futures with a multiplier of PLN 20

30.09
Fourth anniversary of Catalyst

15.10
Launch of InfoEngineOTC, an OTC commodity trading platform

18.10
Introduction to trading of futures contracts on WIBOR reference rates and futures contracts on short-term, mid-term and long-term Treasury bonds

20.11
Adam Maciejewski, President of the Management Board of WSE, is appointed to the Board of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE)

21.11
Exchange Supervisory Board approves extension of shorter trading hours on WSE until the end of 2014 (session opens at 08:45 hours on the derivatives market and 09:00 hours on the cash market and closes at 17:05 hours on both markets)

22.11 
Appointment of the Strategy Committee

26.11
Aquis Exchange launches operation and offers trade in stocks included in FTSE 100, CAC 40 and AEX 25

02.12
WSE modifies the rules of classification of companies in the Alert List segment and obligates penny-stock companies to take measures necessary to eliminate the penny-stock problem

04.12
WSE announces the publication, as of January 2014, of new indices derivative of WIG30: WIG30short and WIG30lev

5-7.12
WSE organises the first edition of the Capital Market Summit

7.12
Doors Open Day on WSE as part of the Capital Warsaw Project

11.12
Energa SA is newly listed on the WSE Main Market, its PLN 2.4 billion offer is the biggest IPO in the CEE in 2013

17.12 
WSE announces the new RESPECT Index portfolio; WSE is one of the four new companies included in the RESPECT index

18.12

WSE amends its dividend policy: the Exchange Management Board will recommend dividend payout to the General Meeting based on the consolidated profit of the WSE Group instead of WSE's separate profit 

 The Year 2013 on WSE

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Warsaw Stock Exchange is the biggest securities exchange in Central and Eastern Europe. WSE organises trading on one of the most dynamically growing capital markets in Europe. WSE operates a regulated market of shares and derivative instruments and the alternative stock market NewConnect for growing companies. WSE is developing Catalyst, a market for issuers of corporate and municipal bonds, as well as commodity markets. Since 9 December 2010, WSE is a public company listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange.http://www.gpw.pl.

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