What is the Warsaw Stock Exchange?

Located in Warsaw, Poland, the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) is the largest stock exchange and one of the most acknowledged Polish financial institutes in entire Eastern Europe.

Commenced in 1991, this exchange trades an array of instruments like Bonds, shares and several other derivative products that can be easily traded electronically. As of December 23, 2020, it has a Market capitalization of 105 trillion PLN.

History of Warsaw Stock Exchange

To regulate the stock exchange, a new law was passed in 1921 and then in 1926 as well as 1935 respectively. The Polish exchanges got subject to the world crises of 1929. However, they recovered in the second half of the 1930s.

Thereafter, in 1939, Poland was occupied by Russian and German forces. As a result, all of the Polish stock exchanges were closed. It was in 1989, after the fall of the communist regime that the re-establishment of the Warsaw Stock Exchange took place.

During this time, France offered financial aid and experience. In the present form, the WSE started its activities on 16 April 1991. On the first day of trading, merely five stocks were listed. While seven brokerages participated in the trading, there are almost 112 buy and sell orders.

Since that time, this stock exchange is growing and developing rapidly and now is concerned well established in the European market. In September 2008, FTSE recognized this stock exchange as an Advanced Emerging one along with countries like Taiwan and South Korea.

WSE Legal Framework

From 29 July 2005, the legal framework for exchange activities and operations is provided by three different acts:

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

Operations and Structure

Founded by the State Treasury, the WSE is a joint-stock company. The treasury holds a total of 25% shares in the capital. In terms of operations, this stock exchange trades shares, subscription rights, bonds, allotments and derivates like options, futures and index participation units.

From the time of establishment, the WSE has been engaged in electronic trading. Also, on 30 August 2007, an extra market was introduced, which is known as NewConnect. The WSE exchange holds pre-market sessions from 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM.

The normal Trading sessions take place from 09:00 AM to 04:50 PM. And, the post-market sessions are executed from 04:50 PM to 05:00 PM. These operations are held every day, except Saturdays, Sundays and the holidays that the exchange announces in advance.