No other year has seen so many large transactions on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, so many investors and such huge trading volumes. This is driven to a large degree by the ongoing privatizations launched by the Treasury. Warsaw is looking to raise billions to help manage its massive debt load.

The year has already seen Polish insurer PZU and energy giant Tauron debut on the WSE, among a series of others. No buyers were as eager as Polish pension funds to snap up whatever shares were being offered. Poland's pension fund managers spent some zł.10.5 billion so far this year. That's double what they spent in the first half of 2009 and a new spending record.

Dailies Parkiet and Rzeczpospolita report fund managers saw it as a key strategic move to
increase their holdings in big firms and 2010 has offered nothing but opportunities to do that. Poland's open pension funds spent more than zł.6 billion snapping up shares of firms privatized by the Treasury and another zł.4 billion on shares of private firms making WSE debuts.

Parkiet reports pension funds still have some zł.4 billion in cash reserves, but won't be going shopping any time soon, as the sections of their portfolios allocated for shares have been maxed out by the furious buying activity of recent months.

Source: Poland AM