Polish equities were lower on Thursday, with the broad-market measure, the WIG index, losing 0.72%. All sectors, but for food (+1.12%), were down, with chemicals (-1.71%) lagging behind.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, slid down 0.88%. Within the index components, oil and gas producer PGNIG (WSE: PGN) suffered the steepest decline of 3.38%. The company's CEO Piotr Wozniak announced plans to buy gas deposits in Norway. According to Mr. Wozniak, PGNIG wants to increase its gas output in Norway to 2.0-2.5 bln cubic meters annually by 2022 (up from 573 mln cubic meters in 2015). Elsewhere, chemical producer GRUPA AZOTY (WSE: ATT) sank by 3.15% on news the Russian fertilizer manufacturer ACRON is in talks with Poland's treasury ministry on selling its ~20% stake in GRUPA AZOTY. Other biggest decliners were videogame developer CD PROJEKT (WSE: CDR), copper producer KGHM (WSE: KGH) and two banking sector names PKO BP (WSE: PKO) and MBANK (WSE: MBK), plunging by 2.22%-3.13%. On the other side of the ledger, coking coal producer JSW (WSE: JSW) topped the gainers' list, correcting upwards by 4.22% after two consecutive sessions of declines. It was followed by agricultural producer KERNEL (WSE: KER) and genco PGE (WSE: PGE), advancing 1.54% and 1.15% respectively.