Polish equity market closed higher on Wednesday. The broad market measure, the WIG index, added 0.93%. Sector performance within the WIG Index was mixed. Utilities stocks (+5.49%) were the strongest group, while construction sector names (-1.34%) lagged behind.

The large-cap stocks' measure, the WIG30 Index, surged by 1.27%. A majority of the index components rose. All four energy generating sector's names ENEA (WSE: ENA), ENERGA (WSE: ENG), TAURON (WSE: TPE) and PGE (WSE: PGE) delivered solid advances, climbing by 4.28%-10.05%, helped by the announcement the Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski stated he did not see a need of raising capital in state-run utilities this year to get extra taxes from them. Recall, Poland's government plan, which was announced in September, implied raising capital in utilities by increasing the nominal value of their shares, which triggers the need of paying of flat-rate income tax of 19 percent on the increased nominal value. Thermal coal miner BOGDANKA (WSE: LWB) as well as two retailers LPP (WSE: LPP) and CCC (WSE: CCC) also recorded significant gains, up 4.06%, 6.3% and 3.45% respectively. On the other side of the ledger, IT-company ASSECO POLAND (WSE: ACP) and three banking names ING BSK (WSE: ING), BZ WBK (WSE: BZW) and ALIOR (WSE: ALR) bank were the major laggards, losing 1.37%-2.48%.