Polish equity market closed slightly higher on Thursday. The broad market measure, the WIG index, added 0.14%. Sector performance within the WIG Index was mixed. Utilities stocks (+4.69%) were the strongest group, while media names (-1.46%) lagged behind.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, edged up 0.07%. In the index basket, coking coal producer JSW (WSE: JSW) and four energy generating sector's names ENERGA (WSE: ENG), ENEA (WSE: ENA), PGE (WSE: PGE) and TAURON (WSE: TPE) posted the largest gains, climbing by 2.41%-9.21%. At the same time, bank ING BSK (WSE: ING) was biggest loser, dropping by 3.43%. Other major laggards were footwear retailer CCC (WSE: CCC), bank MBANK (WSE: MBK) and oil refiner PKN ORLEN (WSE: PKN), falling by 1.87%, 1.12% and 1.1% respectively. It should be noted that PKN ORLEN reported that its net profit amounted to PLN 5.261 bln in 2016, up 85.4% y/y. Its total sales volume rose by 2 percent to a record 10 bln liters of fuel. But its revenues fell by 9.9% y/y to PLN 79.553 bln. As a result, its net margin stood at 12.1%, down 5.5 p.p. y/y. The company also said that it expected that its downstream margin might slightly decrease in 2017 compared to the 2016 average.