March 2007 On The Warsaw Stock Exchange

March 2007 – Key Statistics

206 listed companies reported positive returns.

Trading in the cash market was PLN 43,894 million, up 18% month on month. Trading in the futures market was PLN 54,565 million, up 45% month on month.

  Trading in Instruments

  IPOs

  Other Instruments: First and Last Trading

  More statistics in the Monthly Statistics

• On 1 March, the ERSTE BANK GROUP made a debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange with an innovative investment product: New Europe Blue Chip Index (NTX) Certificates. NTX Index Certificates enable investment on the major and most dynamic markets of Central Europe: Austria (41% share of the Index), Poland (23%), Hungary (15%), the Czech Republic (13%), Romania (5%), and Slovenia (3%) without the need to buy stocks on individual markets. The value of the Certificates is directly dependent on the value of the index listed on the market in the given currency. The first tranche of the Certificates in Poland included 600,000 Certificates worth approximately PLN 40-50 million.

• The 34th Corporate Governance Conference “Listed on WSE: Corporate Governance 2007” was held on 5 March. It was organised by the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the Polish Institute of Directors. At the Conference, WSE President Ludwik Sobolewski presented the new draft Code of Corporate Governance created by initiative of the WSE Management Board with the contribution of and in co-operation with many public and private institutions and exchange community organisations. Public consultation of the Code of Good Practice of WSE Listed Companies is now in process. Comments can be submitted, among others, through a special section on the WSE internet site.

• The Second International Companies Information Forum was held on 5 March at the WSE. The company ASTARTA Holding N.V., Ukraine’s sugar industry leader, presented its Q4 2006 results to investors and journalists. The main objective of this regular programme is to create a platform of the exchange of information between investors and trans-border companies listed on the WSE and to stimulate the trading in the companies’ shares. The participation in the Forum gives foreign listed companies the opportunity of direct contacts with the media and investors and of getting their feedback on the company and its information policy. The meeting was attended, among others, by Viktor Ivanchyk, President of Astarta Holding N.V., and analysts of the Ukrainian investment group “Sokrat”.

• On 5 March, the Hungarian candidate for Remote Exchange Member, Cashline Securities Ltd. with its seat in Budapest, submitted an application for admission to operation on the Exchange.

• Another Open Day for prospective stock exchange issuers “Stock Exchange: Capital for Growth” was held on 8 March. It was another meeting in a regular programme. Like during previous Open Days, the WSE quotations room hosted representatives of companies planning to make a debut on the WSE. The Open Days are aimed to communicate to interested companies necessary information about the WSE IPO process. Representatives of the WSE, the Financial Supervision Commission (KNF), a brokerage house, a law firm, an auditor, a PR/IR agency, and listed companies presented practical advice on IPOs. Management Board Members of the companies Multimedia and ?urawie Wie?owe shared their experience on the IPO process.

• On 9 March, the company ES-SYSTEM of Kraków made a debut on the WSE. The company designs, produces, and sells professional lighting equipment, including standard, architectural, industrial, professional and outdoor systems of luminaires. ES-SYSTEM S.A. is the holding company of a group comprising five subsidiaries in Poland (2), Germany (1), Sweden (1) and Kazakhstan (1). The company’s share in the Polish luminaires market is approximately 10%.

• On 9 March, OPERA Dom Maklerski Sp. z o.o. started its operations on the Exchange. Initially, the broker only traded in derivative instruments on the client’s account. On 29 March, the scope of operations of OPERA Dom Maklerski was extended to include trading in all financial instruments on the client’s account. OPERA DM is the 25th domestic WSE Member. In addition to Polish brokerage houses, 11 foreign companies are Exchange Members.

• At the trading session of 13 March, a new daily record of the volume of trading in futures contracts was set at 92,507 contracts. The session trading volume was 74,175 contracts and the block trading volume was 18,332 contracts. The previous daily record was on 12 December 2006 when the volume of trading in all contracts was 62,131 contracts.

• On 14 March, the WSE Management Board adopted a resolution concerning a reduction of WSE fees. As of 1 April, all transaction fees will be reduced. The average reduction of the fees as of 1 April for instrument categories will be:
  • 15% for transactions in shares made at a trading session;
  • 15% for block trading;
  • 15% for index and shares futures;
  • 20% for bonds futures;
  • 16% for options.

• On 14-16 March, the Warsaw Stock Exchange participated in the Polish National Exposition “Poland Expo Kazakhstan 2007” held in Astana (Kazakhstan). The Warsaw Stock Exchange signed a memorandum of co-operation with the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the creation of a regional financial centre in Almaty. The signing of the memorandum was accompanied by a seminar on opportunities of co-operation of the financial and exchange institutions of Poland and Kazakhstan. The signed memorandum will help to promote the Polish exchange market in Kazakhstan and to facilitate mutual co-operation in the creation of a financial centre in Kazakhstan. The event attracted the attention of the media as well as businessmen and investors who visited the exposition.

• On 15 March, the company SEKO made a debut on the WSE main market. SEKO is one of Poland’s largest producers of fish pickles. The company’s core business is the production and sale of fish pickles in plastic and glass containers, as well as salted fish. The company offers over 200 products.

• On 15 March, the French candidate for Remote Exchange Member, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC with its seat in Paris, submitted a motion for admission to operation on the Exchange.

• On 19 March, Prime Minister Jaros?aw Kaczy?ski visited the WSE. The first part of the visit was the presentation of the “Kluska Package”. The Kluska Package is a range of legislative and organisational measures aimed to facilitate the registration of businesses, to reduce bureaucracy restraining the growth of businesses, and to facilitate investments. The businessman Roman Kluska also participated in the conference via a tele-bridge. He emphasised the importance of the draft changes to Polish businessmen. In the second part of the visit, the Prime Minister participated in the launch of the Technological Initiative I Programme. The conference was also attended by the Minister of Science and Higher Education who presented the goals of the Programme, as well as by representatives of universities and the business community. The Programme will support innovative projects applying the inventions of Polish scientists. The Technological Initiative I will give businesses opportunities of carrying out and implementing research and development projects.

• On 19 March, a new structure and rules of publication of Stock Exchange indices and sub-indices came into effect. As of that day, Stock Exchange indices may include all companies which meet the core criteria (value of free-float shares over EUR 1 million, number of free-float shares over 10%). The packages of shares of all companies included in the indices are calculated on the basis of the number of free-float shares. Following the change, the WSE publishes three main price indices (before it published two indices). The WIG20 index remained the large-cap index. The mid-cap index MIDWIG was renamed mWIG40 and includes a fixed number of 40 companies whose capitalisation and trading volume place them after the companies of the main index. The small-cap index WIRR was replaced with the sWIG80 index which includes another 80 companies smaller than the WIG20 and mWIG40 companies.

• On 20 March, the WSE together with ING Securities and its foreign partner ING Wholesale Banking organised the ING EMEA & Warsaw Stock Exchange Polish MidCap Conference for foreign investors in London. The conference was held to present the Polish exchange market and several mid-cap companies listed on the WSE. This year’s roadshow featured 12 Polish and foreign companies: Astarta, Comarch, Cinema City International, Famur, Pfleiderer Grajewo, InterCars, K?ty, Kredyt Bank, PBG, PGF, Polimex Mostostal, Bank Millennium. The roadshow was attended by representatives of the largest funds investing in Polish stocks including: Fidelity, Capital Research, JP Morgan Fleming, DWS, F&C, Schroders, Pictet, Barings, Deka, Blackrock, T Rowe Price, Credit Suisse, Moore Capital, Legg Mason and many others.

• On 21 March, the French credit institution Société Générale S.A. started operations on the WSE directly from its offices in Paris (remote operations). Previously, Société Générale operated on the Exchange via its Polish branch within a limited market segment: trading in derivative instruments and debt instruments. Now Société Générale will operate in two forms: via its Polish branch and directly from its foreign Office (as a Remote Exchange Member). Société Générale S.A. is the holding company of the Société Générale capital group, a global leader in financial services. It has a presence in 76 countries and employs over 100 thousand people.

• WOOD & Company Financial Services a.s., which signed a WSE IPO Partner co-operation agreement with the WSE in February 2007, received the title of WSE IPO Partner on 27 March 2007.

• On 29 March, Millennium Capital LLC with its seat in Kiev, Ukraine, signed a WSE IPO Partner co-operation agreement with the Warsaw Stock Exchange. On the same day, Millennium Capital LLC received the title of WSE IPO Partner. Millennium Capital is the seventh foreign company to receive the title.

• On 29 March, the company TelForceOne made a debut on the WSE main market. The core business of the capital group is to design, produce, and sell GSM accessories. TelForceOne is Poland’s largest distributor of mobile phone accessories. The group’s share in the mobile phone accessories market is estimated by the company at over 40%.

• On 30 March, the WSE segmented the shares of listed companies according to new regulated market segments. This is a consequence of the new market segmentation applicable as of 1 April 2007. As of that day, the securities of all companies listed in the regulated market are segmented according to three segments: 5 PLUS, 50 PLUS, and 250 PLUS. As a result of the segmentation, the 250 PLUS segment includes shares of 70 companies, the 50 PLUS segment – 106 companies, and the 5 PLUS segment – 117 companies. The new segmentation improves market transparency and gives the investors a new tool facilitating market analyses. The only criterion of eligibility of companies under the new regulated market segments is the company’s capitalisation calculated as the arithmetic mean of its capitalisation over the past three months.

• March was a record-high month in the derivative instruments market. The total volume of trading in all derivative instruments was 930,486 instruments in March, 23% more than the previous record of September 2005 (712,811 instruments). The volume of trading in WIG20 index futures was also record-high at 877,791 contracts. Daily volumes were record high during the month. On 13 March, the volume of trading in all futures was 92,507 contracts, almost 50% more than the previous daily record of 12 December 2006. The number of investors buying WIG20 options is growing: there were more than 1.1 thousand investors in March 2007, the highest monthly number ever. For comparison, 6.8 thousand investors bought WIG20 contracts in March.

• The share of foreign Exchange Members in trading continued to grow in March. At the trading session of 14 March, 10.5% of trading in shares (which totalled over PLN 2 billion) was generated by Remote Exchange Members (in mid-2006, Remote Exchange Members’ trading in shares was approximately PLN 450 million per month). The WSE now has 11 Remote Members; two further companies, the Hungarian brokerage house Cashline Securities and the French BNP Paribas Arbitrage, have applied for WSE membership. Intermediaries from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden and the UK operate on the WSE.