Polish equity market closed higher on Friday. The broad market measure, the WIG Index, surged by 0.68%. Sector performance in the WIG Index was mixed. Utilities stocks (+2.33%) recorded the biggest gain, while oil and gas sector names (-1.15%) lagged behind.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, rose by 0.94%. In the index basket, railway freight transport operator PKP CARGO (WSE: PKP) became the best-performing name, advancing 4.44%. All 4 utilities names, namely ENEA (WSE: ENA), TAURON PE (WSE: TPE), ENERGA (WSE: ENG) and PGE (WSE: PGE) also demonstrated strong performance, growing by 2.16%-4.11%, following Poland's energy minister's announcement that the mergers of the country's biggest gencos is unlikely in 2016. The other notable gainers were clothing retailer LPP (WSE: LPP) and bank ING BSK (WSE: ING), adding 2.89% and 2.68% respectively. On the other side of the ledger, thermal coal miner BOGDANKA (WSE: LWB) and oil refiner PKN ORLEN (WSE: PKN) were the poorest performers, losing 2.47% and 2.29% respectively.