2014-04-16 17:30:10

23rd Anniversary of Warsaw Stock Exchange

Warsaw, 16 April 2014

23rd Anniversary of Warsaw Stock Exchange

PRESS RELEASE

  • The first trading session on WSE was held on 16 April 1991.
  • 23 years later, WSE is the biggest exchange in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
  • WSE controls five subsidiaries and has a stake in three affiliates.
  • The new trading system UTP has been successfully operated by WSE for a year.

PLN 1,990: this was the total turnover on the exchange on 16 April 1991, the first day of operation of WSE. Stock of only five companies was traded at the first session. After 23 years of continuous growth, WSE boasts figures of a different order. In 2013, the average daily value of session transactions was PLN 891.3 million (an increase of more than 18 percent YoY). March has been the record-breaking month this year. The average daily session turnover in equities was PLN 1.08 billion and the total monthly value of session trading was PLN 22.6 billion (the highest since August 2011).

The strength of WSE after more than two decades is also evident in its strong and stable position in Central and Eastern Europe. WSE's share in the CEE region by capitalisation is 49 percent1 and its share in equities trading is nearly 60 percent2, among others due to the rising growth rate of turnover. At the same time, with equities trading growing by 31 percent3 CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in 2002-2012, WSE is one of the fastest growing European exchanges.

As corroboration of its international aspirations and an example of innovative thinking appreciated on foreign markets, WSE has acquired a stake in Aquis Exchange Ltd., a multilateral trading facility (MTF) established in the United Kingdom. Aquis launched its offer on 26 November 2013. The company currently gives access to trading in blue-chip stock in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Germany. Aquis Exchange is planning to give access to trading in stock on 14 European markets in due course.

Warsaw Stock Exchange currently lists 453 companies (Main Market), including 46 foreign issuers (Main Market). However, WSE today is more than an organiser of trading in financial instruments on the exchange. It is also a robust group of companies comprising five subsidiaries: Polish Power Exchange (PolPX), BondSpot, WSEInfoEngine, Instytut Rynku Kapitałowego - WSE Research and WSE Commodities. WSE holds a stake of 33.33 percent, 24.79 percent and 32.61 percent4, respectively, in three affiliates: Central Securities Depository of Poland (KDPW), Centrum Giełdowe and Aquis Exchange.

Apart from the Main Market, investors can also trade in stock on NewConnect and in bonds on Catalyst and BondSpot. The value of bonds issued by financial and non-financial institutions to GDP currently stands at 7.6 percent5 in Poland, compared to around 180 percent in some other European countries (Ireland 189 percent, Netherlands 187 percent, Luxembourg 180 percent). Consequently, the bond market has a huge growth potential. Companies and banks increasingly understand that debt securities afford a great opportunity of raising new capital as an alternative to other sources of funding. Bonds at an aggregate value of PLN 4.37 billion were newly listed on Catalyst in 2013; 20 new issuers have been newly listed this year and the aggregate value of their issues has been more than PLN 1.2 billion.

Warsaw Stock Exchange also offers trade in derivative instruments. WSE ranked high at #5 in Europe by the volume of trading in index futures at more than 8.33 million contracts in 2013.

The WSE Group also offers trade on the markets operated by PolPX: the markets in energy, gas, property rights and CO2 emission allowances. With dynamic growth, PolPX plays an increasingly significant role. This is demonstrated by the growth of its contribution to the revenue of the Group from 22.9 percent at the end of 2012 to 26.8 percent in 2013.

The 23 years of operation of WSE have abounded in changes which had a significant impact on the growth of the Polish capital market. The ground-breaking changes include the implementation of the new trading system UTP last year, replacing Warset which was in operation from 2000. This was an enormous technological change which opened up new opportunities for the exchange. Since then, the system can process several dozen times more orders in the same unit of time (20 thousand orders per second v. ca. 850 for Warset).

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1 FESE, February 2014r.
2 Thomson Reuters, session trading, March 2014.
3 The World Bank.
4 Currently WSE holds 384,025 ordinary shares of Aquis Exchange representing 39.06% of the total number of shares and 32.61% of economic and voting rights. The target stake of WSE in Aquis Exchange will be 30.00%.
5 Eurostat, BISE, Fitch, September 2013.

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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 November 2010, WSE is a public company listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange.www.gpw.pl.

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