Warsaw Stock Exchange: Launch Of WIG50 And WIG250 Indices

• Today WSE starts to publish the WIG50 and WIG250 indices.
• The new index portfolios include, respectively, 50 mid-cap and up to 250 small-cap stocks.
• The new indices are a better reflection of the diversity of WSE-listed companies.
• WSE discontinued the publication of the sWIG80 and WIG-Plus indices on 21 March 2014 and will discontinue the publication of the WIG20 and mWIG40 indices at the end of 2015.

Warsaw Stock Exchange started on 24 March 2014 to publish the indices WIG50 and WIG250. The new stock exchange indices are designed as a better reflection of the structure of the trading floor in Warsaw including mainly the growing importance of small and medium-sized companies on WSE. It is yet another stage in the restructuring of the main indices published by Warsaw Stock Exchange. In September 2013, the Exchange started to publish the WIG30 index comprised of the 30 most liquid and biggest stocks listed on WSE. 

“After the launch of WIG30, it is time to rebuild the set of indices of small and medium-sized companies. Their growing role in the Polish economy has an increasing impact on the structure of the WSE market. I am certain that the investors will welcome the new indices, mainly because they represent the position and potential of WSE-listed companies in a practical and holistic manner,” said Adam Maciejewski, President of the Management Board of WSE.

The WIG50 portfolio includes stocks of 50 mid-cap companies listed on the WSE Main Market. The index will eventually replace mWIG40. The WIG250 index is comprised of 250 small-cap stocks listed on the WSE Main Market. Both indices are price indices, which means that their value includes only the prices of transactions concluded in the index stocks excluding dividend income.

Due to the start of the publication of the new indices, the Exchange discontinued the calculation and publication of the sWIG80 and WIG-Plus indices after the trading session on 21 March 2014. WSE will continue to calculate the indices WIG20 and mWIG40 until 31 December 2015.

The replacement of mWIG40 with WIG50 implies a change of the underlying instrument of futures contracts on the index. According to the approved migration timetable, the first series of contracts on the new index will be introduced to trading on 22 December 2014. At the same time, no further (new) series of contracts on mWIG40 will be introduced to trading. The migration to the WIG50 index contracts will be completed in June 2015. The mWIG40 and WIG50 contracts will be listed in parallel for six months from December 2014 to June 2015. The process may be shorter if all open interest in the last listed series of mWIG40 contracts is closed.

Enclosed please find the list of stocks in the portfolios of the WIG50 and WIG250 indices.

Starting today, the historical values of the new indices are also available on the WSE website.

Table 1. WIG50 and WIG250 Indices: Key Facts

Figure 1. WIG50 index (WIG50 index values were recalculated back to 28 December 2012) 

Figure 2. WIG250 index (WIG250 index values were recalculated back to 28 December 2012)