The experience of stock market investors who followed recommendations was not the best last year. Of course when there are only 230 quoted companies, it is hard to find a dead cert but stock brokers are largely making their suggestions to small investors who cannot expect to find better information.
The pharmaceutical sector was one of the best investments in 2001. Those who put their money on Polfa Kutno this time last year would have seen their money double. Nonetheless this was only spotted by four stockbrokers, the majority suggested just keeping or selling the stock. Analysts from Nomura even suggested selling it twice. Other pharmaceutical companies Viscoplast, Farmacol, Orfe and Jelfa all find their way into the top ten risers for 2001, something that was spotted by most brokers.
Nearly all brokers predicted that Pekao S.A. was worth buying although the same brokers failed to spot increases in the value of Bank Slaski. Societe Generale Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities could hardly have got it more wrong as far as Netia was concerned. The former recommended buying the stock last February putting a worth of PLN200 of each stock. In the summer this opinion was changed to PLN39. Deutsche Bank Securities recommended Netia in March putting a value of PLN106 on it. The most recent valuation, albeit six months ago in July, was of PLN47.80 per share. The current value of Netia is around PLN4 per share and the company is on the very edge of bankruptcy.