News

High Volatility of Stock Prices and High Turnover on GPW in H1 2020

PRESS RELEASE

• The value of turnover in shares on the GPW Main Market was record-high at PLN 131 billion in H1 2020. Financial, retail, services, fuel and energy stocks were among those most traded.
• The turnover in shares on NewConnect was historically high at over PLN 4 billion in H1 2020. Gaming, biotechnology and renewable energy stocks were among those most traded.

The coronavirus pandemic triggered high volatility of stocks and other financial instruments traded on exchanges all around the world including Poland. The value of turnover in shares on the GPW Main Market was record-high at more than PLN 131 billion in H1 2020 and investor activity peaked in June. Five companies were newly listed on GPW in H1 2020, including one new listing on the Main Market and four on NewConnect. Two other companies were newly listed on the Main Market and NewConnect in July 2020.

Table 1. Index performance in H1 2020

Source: GPW

“With high volatility in Q1, European exchanges reported record-high turnover. The dynamic recovery of indices led to the record-high turnover that continued into Q2. The sharp fall of stock prices followed by a strong recovery brought new investors to the capital market. Brokers opened more than 70 thousand new accounts for clients in H1 2020. We expect that most of those new investors will stay on the capital market for good,” said Marek Dietl, CEO at GPW.

Table 2. Turnover on the Main Market in stocks by sector in H1 2020

Source: GPW

Indices

The biggest value of turnover on the GPW Main Market in H1 2020 was generated by stocks in the financial sector, fuel and energy industries, retail and services. Technology and gaming stocks were the absolute price growth leaders in H1 2020. The index WIG.GAMES comprised of the biggest gaming providers listed on the GPW Main Market gained more than two-thirds year to date.

Table 3. WIG.GAMES performance in H1 2020

Source: GPW

Table 4. Best performing GPW Main Market indices in H1 2020 [%]

Source: GPW

Technology stocks participating in the indices WIG-Tech and WIG-IT were appreciating. In H1 2020, WIG-Tech rose twice as much as in H2 2019, reporting best performance in April 2020 (up by more than 20%). Despite the corona pandemic, sWIG80 performed well, too. It gained more than 11% year to date at 30 June.

Derivatives

The volume of turnover in derivatives was more than PLN 5.8 million in H1 2020, rising 76.6% year on year. Derivatives generated 43% of the total value of turnover on GPW. Index futures remained the most popular category of derivatives and accounted for more than half of the total turnover in derivatives on GPW in H1 2020.

Table 5. Volume of turnover in derivatives on GPW in H1 2020

 
Source: GPW

ETP

The total value of turnover in Exchange-Traded Products (ETP) on GPW, including ETFs and structured products, stood at nearly PLN 2 billion in H1 2020. Structured products were the most popular ETP category and their turnover reached over PLN 1.5 billion generated in 223,000 transactions. By comparison, annual turnover in structured products stood at PLN 1.31 billion in 2019.

“Polish investors appreciate GPW-traded structured products which offer exposure to assets that are not directly available to retail investors (including oil, gas, and noble metals). A regular brokerage account is all it takes to invest in structured products based on indices, stocks or commodities from international markets. New issuers of structured products have recently been actively joining GPW, including Europe’s biggest issuers. We are proud that the conditions we offer for the introduction of and trading in structured products are attractive both to investors and issuers,” said Izabela Olszewska, Member of the GPW Management Board.

NewConnect

As at 30 June 2020 NewConnect listed 372 companies. The turnover on the market was historically high at PLN 4.1 billion in H1 2020, representing an increase of 550% year on year. The monthly turnover in April crossed the mark of PLN 1 billion. The market’s NCIndex gained 91.6% year to date. NewConnect hit all-time daily EOB turnover records several times in July, peaking at PLN 204 million.

Table 6. NCIndex, end of month in H1 2020

Source: GPW

“We are proud of the growth in NewConnect turnover in H1 2020 combined with growing numbers of NewConnect investors. The low rate environment favours the capital market as many investors are looking for investment opportunities offering an alternative to bank deposits. NewConnect lists many companies active in promising sectors with a good outlook of growth, whicha are now on the investors’ radar,” said Piotr Borowski, Member of the GPW Management Board.

Table 7. Top 10 segments most traded on NewConnect in H1 2020 [PLN’000]

 
Source: GPW

Catalyst

The bond market Catalyst listed 135 issuers as at 30 June 2020. BGK (Poland’s state development bank) and PFR (Polish Development Fund) introduced more than PLN 104 billion bonds to secondary trading on Catalyst in the framework of the COVID-19 Prevention Fund in H1 2020. The value of bond turnover on Catalyst reached PLN 1.4 billion in H1 2020, including close to PLN 900 million in corporate bonds, PLN 430 million in Treasury and BGK bonds, and PLN 0.45 million in municipal bonds. The Treasury and BGK introduced PLN 890 million bonds to trading on Catalyst. The value of new corporate bond issues reached PLN 67.7 million while the value of new municipal bond issues was PLN 25.6 million.

Table 8. Share of issuers in turnover on Catalyst in H1 2020

Source: GPW

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The Warsaw Stock Exchange Group (GPW Group) operates trading platforms for shares, Treasury and corporate bonds, derivatives, electricity and gas, and provides indices and benchmarks including WIBOR and WIBID. The index agent FTSE Russell classifies the Polish capital market as a Developed Market since 2018. The markets operated by the GPW Group are the biggest in Central and Eastern Europe. For more information, visit www.gpw.pl