BLBG:Polish Stocks Decline for Second Day as PKO, Oil Refiners Drop
Poland’s benchmark stock index fell for a second day as PKO Bank Polski SA retreated after the government said it may sell a stake in its largest lender this year and oil refiners declined on lower crude prices.
The WIG20 Index fell 1.4 percent to 2,267.63 at 12:20 p.m. in Warsaw, extending this month’s decline to 17 percent. PKO fell for the first time in four days, heading for the steepest drop in almost a week.
Oil dropped from the highest closing price in four days in New York before a report forecast to show crude stockpiles increased in the U.S., the world’s largest user of the commodity. The Treasury Ministry will reconsider a sale of a stake at the end of October or in early November after it canceled next month’s offering, it said yesterday after the market closed.
“The stock overhang is merely postponed, not annulled,” Dariusz Gorski, a Warsaw-based analyst at Bank Zachodni WBK SA’s brokerage, wrote in a note today.
PKO shares dropped 1.7 percent to 35.4 zloty, valuing the lender at 44.3 billion zloty ($15.4 billion). The stock climbed to a one-week high yesterday on speculation the government would suspend the offering, preventing more shares from flooding the market. The Treasury postponed the sale of a 15 percent stake, citing deteriorating market conditions.
“The government will remain on standby and once the share price and market sentiment improve, they might relaunch the process without any hesitation or delay,” Marek Juras and Pawel Kozub, Warsaw-based analysts at UniCredit SpA, wrote in a note.
PKN Orlen SA, Poland’s biggest oil company, fell 1.1 percent to 36.6 zloty, snapping a three-day advance. Grupa Lotos SA (LTS), the second-largest refiner, fell for a second day, losing 2 percent to 32.29 zloty as crude oil declined.
KGHM Polska Miedz SA, the copper producer with the biggest European mine output, fell for the first time in three days, losing 2.4 percent to 155.2 zloty.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pawel Kozlowski in Warsaw pkozlowski@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
