Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Although the WIG20 index fell 1.78 percent on Thursday, it did not move beyond the very narrow 90-point range it has stayed in for the last eight sessions. The volume of trade was half of what is normally generated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. A similar situation was recently noted in February. Then, it jumped after foreign investors came back to the Polish market.
Blue chips did not attract much trade. Retail sales data for July 2006 published by the central statistical office GUS which were worse than expected, did not influence the indices. The sales rose 11 percent year on year while analysts forecast 12.5 percent increase. On the other hand, GUS said that the GDP growth in the second quarter might be higher than in the first one when it amounted to 5.2 percent. Unemployment rate fell to 15.7 percent in July.
Among small and mid-caps, Swissmed Centrum Zdrowia jumped 22.3 percent although the company said only after the closing bell that it would issue 13.6m new shares. Hutmen jumped even more – 25.2 percent. The company said it would issue stock and raised its net income forecast from PLN 25m to over PLN 40m. Fasing rose 20 percent after it said it had made a joint venture with Chinese Taian Liangda Machine Manufacture.