Polish equity market plunged on Tuesday. The broad market measure, the WIG Index, declined by 1.84%. Food sector (+0.05%) was sole gainer within the WIG Index. At the same time, utilities (-4.12%) recorded the worst result. Poland's energy minister Krzysztof Tchórzewski said on Wednesday that Poland needed a power capacity market to help coal-fired power plants compete with producers of renewable energy and to avoid power shortages. Poland generates nearly 80% of its electricity from highly-polluting coal power plants, mainly operated by state-run power companies PGE (WSE: PGE), TAURON (WSE: TPE) and ENEA (WSE: ENA), which are coming under pressure from subsidized renewables such as wind power, reducing investment in new capacity. Mr. Tchorzewski stated that Poland had to call on the European Commission for a system of financing conventional generation. If it does not build around 7 gigawatts of new capacities in six years, then it will have to regulate electricity consumption.

The large-cap companies' measure, the WIG30 Index, lost 2.25%. Only two index constituents managed to generate positive returns: agricultural producer KERNEL (WSE: KER) gained 0.28%, while oil and gas producer PGNIG (WSE: PGN) added 0.19%. At the same time, railway freight transport operator PKP CARGO (WSE: PKP) suffered the steepest drop, plunging by 6.98%. Other major underperformers were bank BZ WBK (WSE: BZW), chemical producer GRUPA AZOTY (WSE: ATT) and three gencos PGE (WSE: PGE), TAURON (WSE: TPE) and ENEA (WSE: ENA), which lost between 4.03% and 5.52%.