Polish equity market continued its upward surge on Thursday. The broad market measure, the WIG index, rose by 1.36%. Almost all sectors in the WIG generated positive returns. The only exception was chemicals sector (-0.51%). At the same time, materials (+2.88%) and oil and gas sector (+2.72%) were the best-performers.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, grew by 1.56%. Only six index constituents generated losses, with chemical producer GRUPA AZOTY (WSE: ATT) underperforming with a 2.05% decline. Bank PEKAO (WSE: PEO) emerged as the second worst-performing stock in the index basket, slumping by 1.57%. The stock came under pressure for the second straight day on the back of the announcement that Poland is interested in taking a controlling stake in the bank to increase its control over the Polish banking sector, currently 60-percent owned by foreign investors. On the plus side, banks ALIOR (WSE: ALR) and BZ WBK (WSE: BZW) were the biggest advancers, gaining 4.8% and 4.5% respectively. They were followed by genco ENERGA (WSE: ENG), coking coal miner JSW (WSE: JSW) and oil refiner PKN ORLEN (WSE: PKN), which grew by 4.46%, 4.12% and 4.01% respectively.