The start of March was promising for Polish investors. Negative sentiment regarding the debt-strapped PIIGS countries faded some, and macroeconomic data from major world economies was generally better than expected. Combined, this news offered a great incentive for WSE indices to return to growth after a disappointing January-February period.

Investors digested an overwhelming volume of quarterly earnings reports. Although there were few occasions to clearly cheer about, some companies positively surprised with their Q4 earnings.

Among constituents of the blue-chip WIG20 index, Bioton attracted the most interest because its earnings were hit by a zł.393 million impairment charge. Interestingly, investors reacted positively to the company’s report, perhaps believing that the difficult move is part of Bioton’s strategy to put its troubles behind it and start the year 2010 fresh. Moreover, the company announced a forecast (net profit zł.94 million) assuming the launch of insulin sales in China and the sale of Russian subsidiary Bioton Wostok and of its Polish and Italian antibiotics divisions.

On the broad market, the results of Helio and Kogeneracja were inspiring – both benefited from seasonal bumps in Q4. On the other hand, restaurant operators disappointed, with Sfinks, Polskie Jadło and AmRest all suffering from decreased consumer spending due to severe weather conditions.

This week, investors should shift their interest to global markets.

Adam Nowakowski, Analyst, DM BZWBK