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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s blue-chip WIG20 stock market index hit its highest ever level on Monday, surpassing a record that had stood for almost 19 years.
The WIG20 has been Europe’s best-performing major blue-chip index so far this year. According to market monitoring website MarketScreener, the index has gained just under 25% since the start of 2026, ahead of the Dutch AEX (16.9%) and Sweden’s OMX Stockholm (14.9%).
The WIG20, which tracks the 20 largest and most liquid companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW), climbed to 3,963.21 points on Monday, breaking its previous record of 3,940.53 points set in October 2007. It continues a rally that began in October 2022, since when the index has almost tripled in value.
“The market continues to be supported by solid economic growth, rising consumer spending, and the prospect of further EU investment,” commented analysts from BNP Paribas, a bank, quoted by business daily Parkiet.
“However, after such strong gains, we do not expect the pace of appreciation to remain as high as in recent years,” they added.
On Monday, the biggest boosts to the WIG20 index were provided by PGE, Poland’s biggest power producer, and KGHM, a Polish multinational mining company, with their shares rising 3.3% and 1.6%, respectively.
The surge was also supported by improving risk appetite across global markets following signs of a de-escalation in tensions in the Middle East.
This has pushed WIG20 above the levels last seen 19 years ago, just before the index plunged almost 70% during the 2008 global financial crisis, and then suffered another sell-off during the euro zone debt crisis in 2011.
Reform of one of the pillars of Poland’s pension system in 2014, which reduced the role of open pension funds, ushered in years of market stagnation and left the index struggling to meaningfully rebound in the following years.
Another decline came during the COVID-19 pandemic and then in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In October 2022, however, the WIG20 started its rebound, rising by 195% since then.
More than 30 Polish-listed companies have doubled in value over the past three years, including large-cap stocks such as Orlen, PKO BP, Bank Pekao, KGHM and Tauron, according to an analysis by economic journalist Rafał Hirsch published by news service WNP.
Polish state energy firm Orlen has seen its market valuation rise to its highest ever level, and surpass Russia’s Gazprom for the first time https://t.co/w3po4izshJ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 12, 2026
BNP Paribas’s analysts, however, note that, “despite a long-term upward trend and reaching record highs”, the Polish stock market “is still valued below many other European markets”.
“Our stock market…remains significantly cheaper than the US market and most European markets, but at the same time, when viewed against its own historical performance, it is now relatively highly valued,” they said.
Poland’s main stock index, the broader WIG, also closed on Monday at a record high of 148,428 points, having hit several records in recent months.
Poland’s benchmark WIG stock index has passed the 100,000-point mark for the first time. Meanwhile, the Warsaw Stock Exchange has been the world’s best performing so far this year
"It is a clear signal of the strength of our economy," says the PM's office https://t.co/fIgGWOLLn8
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 25, 2025
Analysts warn, however, that unlike in the case of WIG, the WIG20’s record may prove short-lived because the benchmark is a price index, which excludes dividends.
When companies in the index pay dividends, their share prices usually fall by about the same amount, which automatically pulls the index down even if nothing has changed in the companies themselves.
Monday was the last day investors could buy shares in PKO BP and qualify for this year’s dividend. From Tuesday, the bank’s shares will trade ex-dividend, a move expected to reduce the WIG20 by about 0.8% because of PKO BP’s large weighting in the index.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: RDNE Stock project/Pexels
Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.
