Today, this Polish company lost not only its boss. An unprecedented discount for a state-owned giant
While most WIG20 companies are increasing in price during Friday's session on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, KGHM's shares have plummeted. Already at the opening, the price dropped by over 4 percent, but later it only got worse. The declines intensified after 10.00, when unofficial information about the personnel earthquake at KGHM began to arrive. It turned out that the supervisory board of KGHM dismissed the company's president, Andrzej Szydło, and vice-president, Piotr Stryczek.
This information probably contributed to the deepening of the price of KGHM shares, although the falling prices of copper and silver, i.e. the key products of the Lubin group, may have been more important. Silver prices, after reaching records in recent days, fell by 14% on Friday. Copper futures contracts, which also gained significantly and pushed the KGHM share price to record levels, lost over 3% on Friday.
At some point, a little after At 11.00, KGHM shares were quoted at PLN 333.5, which meant a price drop of as much as 10.3%. compared to Thursday's closing (the highest in the company's history at PLN 371.9). This is the largest daily decline in years: probably since July 2022, when the rate temporarily dropped by as much as 11.8%. (although then the contribution of 2.9 percentage points was due to the cut-off of the right to dividend). Only if we go back to the beginning of March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was gaining momentum and the global economy was slowing down under the influence of the first lock-downs, the one-day decline in KGHM shares is greater than today: then the prices during two disastrous sessions for the stock exchanges fell by as much as 12.9%. and 16 percent
Bad sessions like today have not been so rare lately. By 9.3 percent KGHM shares fell in November 2024 (lost 16% in six sessions), and in April 2025 by 9.7%. (then in three sessions the price fell by 13% in six days). By 10.2 percent KGHM shares fell at the end of January 2021.
Discount by 10.3%. means that the capitalization of the copper giant decreased by as much as PLN 7.44 billion in one day. There was a temporary recovery in the afternoon, but after 3 p.m. KGHM shares are again trading near the morning session low of approximately PLN 333.7, which means a market valuation of approximately PLN 66.7 billion.
The decline in KGHM share prices is accompanied by very high turnover. Until 15.15 securities worth over PLN 930 million changed owners. For comparison, the total turnover in shares on the WSE at that time reached PLN 2.12 billion.
KGHM is still one of the strongest companies on the WSE
Despite today's massive depreciation, KGHM shares are the strongest in WIG20 in terms of rate of return this year: they earned almost 20%. Orange Polska, second in this respect, recorded over 13%. growth. Next are Orlen and PGE with a result of approximately 12 percent each.
The annual rate of return on KGHM shares is also impressive. It reaches 165 percent, which is definitely higher than the benchmarks: WIG20 gained “only” 39 percent during this time, and WIG, the broad market index, over 43 percent.
