Polish equity market closed higher on Wednesday. The broad market measure, the WIG Index, surged by 0.73%. Sector performance in the WIG Index was mixed. Banking stocks (+2.34%) recorded the biggest gain in response to the rumors that a new tax on bank assets might be introduced in 2017 rather than next year, as some investors had expected. At the same time, materials (-3.18%) lagged behind.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, rose by 0.87%. The best-performing banking names, including HANDLOWY (WSE: BHW), PEKAO (WSE: PEO), BZWBK (WSE: BZW), ING BSK (WSE: ING), MBANK (WSE: MBK) and ALIOR (WSE: ALR), returned gains of 2.20%-5.19%. ASSECO POLAND (WSE: ACP) and PKN ORLEN (WSE: PKN) also demonstrated strong performance, growing by 4.19% and 2.60% respectively. On the other side of the ledger, KGHM (WSE: KGH), TAURON PE (WSE: TPE), EUROCASH (WSE: EUR) and GRUPA AZOTY (WSE: ATT) were the poorest performers, losing 2.38%-3.85%.