Warsaw Stock Exchange To Broaden Main Index To 30 Companies

WARSAW--The Warsaw Stock Exchange will broaden its main blue chip index to 30 companies from the current 20 as the market's capitalization increases and the old index became too narrow, the exchange said in a statement Tuesday.

The new WIG30 index will be launched on Sept. 23 and until the end of 2015 will be published alongside the existing WIG20 index, which will cease to exist starting in 2016.

"Changes to the indices is aimed at improving representation of the market's size and condition and also stimulating its development," the Warsaw bourse's chief executive officer Adam Maciejewski said in a statement. "Changes should result in higher liquidity on the stock market and reviving derivative market in a longer term."

Pierwszy skład WIG30

The stock exchange also plans to broaden its other indices. The mid-cap WIG40 will be turned into mWIG50 and sWIG80 will be replaced by sWIG100 in 2014.

The WIG20 index was introduced in 1994, when only 24 companies were listed on the exchange and their total market capitalization reached 8 billion zlotys ($2.5 billion). Currently 443 companies are listed worth PLN540 billion.