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- WSE introduces comprehensive changes to its main indices
- As of 23 September 2013, WSE will start calculating and publishing new indices – WIG30 and WIG30TR
- WIG20 will continue to be published until 31 December 2015
- The purpose of these changes is to reflect market’s size and sectoral diversity and to improve stock market’s liquidity and to stimulate growth of the derivatives market
Since the introduction of WIG20 in April 1994, Poland’s economy has undergone a transformation and the Polish capital market as well as the Warsaw Stock Exchange have recorded rapid growth. During this period the number of companies listed on the Main Market increased from 24[1] to 443[2], and the capitalization of domestic companies increased from over PLN 8 billion to nearly PLN 540 billion. WSE is currently one of the fastest growing markets in Europe and the largest stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe. Thus, this qualitative change needs to be reflected in an index that brings together the largest and most liquid companies listed on the Main Market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The changes are also set to stimulate the pace of growth of individual market sectors.
As of 23 September 2013, WSE will start publishing new WIG30 and WIG30TR indices. WIG30 index will include the 30 largest and most liquid companies on WSE’s Main Market. WIG30 will be a price index, which means that its calculation includes only the prices of transactions in its stocks. WIG30 index may include no more than seven companies from each exchange sector and the share of a single stock in the index capitalisation is capped at 10%. WIG30TR, on the other hand, will be a total return index and will be calculated not only on the basis of the prices of transactions in its stocks but also on returns on dividends and pre-emptive rights. According to the planned timetable, WIG20 index will be published until the end of December 2015. The enlargement of WSE main index portfolio also implies an increase in the number of participants in the mid-cap index – mWIG40 and the small-cap index – sWIG80. As of March 2014, the Warsaw Stock Exchange will begin publishing WIG50 and WIG100 indices.
‘The changes to the main stock market indices are intended to better reflect the condition and size of our market and to stimulate its development. This should improve liquidity on the euities market and – in the longer term – stimulate the derivatives market. We have carried out extensive domestic and international consultations, as making such extensive and historic changes requires particular attention and care for the interests of our stakeholders. We have approved a detailed timetable aimed at introducing the changes in a safe and transparent manner so that the entire market is adequately prepared for them,’ said Adam Maciejewski, President of the WSE Management Board.
Introduced changes in the main stock market indices result in a natural way in modifications to existing index based derivatives. WIG30 will become the underlying for new futures contracts as well as options and will eventually replace currently listed WIG20 futures and options. WIG50 will become the underlying for new futures contracts and will eventually replace currently listed mWIG40 futures. The process of migration from currently listed index based derivatives to the new ones will begin at the end of 2014 and it assumes a certain period of parallel listing of derivatives based on current and new indices. The migration process of WIG30 derivatives (futures and options) may take until September 2015 and WIG50 derivates may take until June 2015. The migration process can be shorter if there is no open interest any more in the last listed series of WIG20 and mWIG40 derivatives. If that case, trading in such series may be suspended and the migration will automatically end earlier.
