Small investors hit all-time low level on Warsaw bourse

The share of foreign investors is now 51 percent, a WSE statement read. "In the first half of the year – as in recent years - the largest share of trading on the WSE main market was taken up by foreign investors, up from 49 percent in 2014."

“The increase of two percentage points is evidence, among others, of the success of the Stock Exchange in promoting the Polish capital market abroad. It is also a result of filling the gap after a loss of pension funds (OFE) from trading on the bourse,” a Warsaw Stock Exchange statement reads.

The share in individual investors, which in 2010 was 19 percent and 2009 27 percent, is now at an all-time low.

On the NewConnect floor of the bourse, however, smaller investors still play a dominant role. In the first half of 2015 they had 79 percent, an increase of nine percentage points from 2014. NewConnect is a market designed primarily for small innovative companies.

The share of domestic institutional investors in trading on NewConnect fell by eight percentage points compared down from 15 percent in 2014.

"This is partly due to the fact that certain categories of institutional investors can no longer invest in companies listed in the Alternative Trading System," the statement continued. (jh)