Warsaw Stock Exchange

Warsaw Stock Exchange operates on the basis of three acts dated July 29, 2005:

• On Public Offering, Conditions Governing the Introduction of Financial Instruments to Organised Trading, and Public Companies;
  
• On Trading in Financial Instruments;
  
• On Capital Market Supervision.

The capital market tradition in Poland dates back to 1817, when the first Mercantile Exchange was founded in Warsaw. In its present form,

the Exchange began operating on 16 April 1991, from the outset organising securities trading in electronic form.The Exchange is a joint-stock company founded by the State Treasury. The company has share capital of PLN 41,972,000 which is divided into 15,187,200 A serie registered shares and 26,784,800 B serie registered shares. At the end of 2008, its shareholders included 35 entities. These were banks, brokerage firms, an Exchange company and the State Treasury. The State Treasury's stake was 98.82%.

The task of the WSE is to organise public trading in securities. The Exchange provides a concentration of buy and sell offers in one place and time in order to designate prices and execute transactions.

The trading system of the Warsaw Stock Exchange is order-driven. This means that to determine the price of a security, a list of sell and buy orders is drawn up in a form of public order book. These orders are matched according to strict rules and transactions are executed during trading sessions. To improve the liquidity of trading brokerage firms can fulfil the function of market animator by placing buy and sell orders on the public order book (pursuant to an appropriate agreement with the Exchange).

The following instruments are traded on the Warsaw Exchange: shares, bonds, subscription rights, allotment certificates, investment certificates, and derivative instruments: futures, options and index participation units.

The Warsaw Stock Exchange operates trading in financial instruments on two markets:

- The WSE Main List operates since the WSE began trading on 16 April 1991. The market is supervised by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and notified to the European Commission as a regulated market.

- NewConnect is a market organised and operated by the WSE as an alternative trading system. It was established for young growing companies, particularly in the high-tech sector.NewConnect was launched on 30 August 2007. Trading in the alternative system may include shares, allotment certificates, subscription rights, depository receipts, and other equities.

The WSE is currently pursuing a growth strategy aimed at strengthening the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Polish market and creating a Central and Eastern European financial centre in Warsaw.The WSE is now an important European capital market and a CEE leader, leveraging the growth potential of the Polish economy and the dynamic rise of the Polish capital market.