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- The Exchange will publish WIG50 and WIG250 from 24 March 2014.
- The new indices are a better reflection of the diversity of WSE listed stocks.
- WIG50 will be the underlying instrument of new futures to be introduced to trading in late 2014.
Warsaw Stock Exchange will publish WIG50 and WIG250 indices starting on 24 March 2014. This is another important step, relevant to small and medium-sized companies, in the restructuring of the main indices of Warsaw Stock Exchange. In September 2013, WSE began to publish the main index WIG30, followed up by the then announced increase of the number of stocks participating in the midcap and smallcap indices.
Initially WSE announced the introduction of WIG50 and WIG100 indices. However, after consulting capital market participants in the last months, it was decided to create WIG250 whose portfolio will include stocks participating both in sWIG80 and WIG-Plus. Thus, the new index will include the smallest listed companies, becoming a stock exchange index tracking the performance of this category of securities.
“We will start to publish WIG50 and WIG250 in March 2014. As a result, we will create a new set of exchange indices, including WIG30, which is a better reflection of the market structure and the strong importance of small and medium-sized companies both on the exchange and in the economy. I am certain that this index model based on blue chip, midcap and smallcap stocks will provide investors with an optimal, transparent and reliable structure of classification of WSE listed companies for many years,” said Adam Maciejewski, President of the Management Board of WSE.
The WIG50 index, which will eventually replace mWIG40, will include 50 stocks listed on the WSE Main Market. The WIG250 index portfolio will include up to 250 smallcap stocks also listed on the WSE Main Market. WIG50 and WIG250 will be price indices, which means that their value will be based only on prices of transactions excluding dividend income.
The publication of the new indices as of 24 March 2014 implies that calculation and publication of sWIG80 and WIG-Plus will be discontinued after the trading session on 21 March 2014. However, mWIG40 will be calculated until 31 December 2015. Warsaw Stock Exchange will publish the WIG50 and WIG250 index portfolios in the first half of February 2014. Historical index values will be available as of the publication date as well.
The replacement of mWIG40 by WIG50 implies a change of the underlying instrument of index futures. According to the migration timeline, 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 mWIG40 futures will be introduced to trading. The migration of contracts to WIG50 will be completed in June 2015. mWIG40 and WIG50 futures will be listed in parallel for six months from December 2014 to June 2015. The process may be shorter if open interest in the last available listed series of mWIG40 futures are closed.
