Poland Diary (Mar – May 2010)

My trip to Warsaw, Poland (capital) was eventful in terms of NEWS. (Even if it was not, need to create news!)
Poland is a developing country. It joined EU lately, focus is to provide on par facilities like other EU nations and also trying very hard to be in league of top Euro nations. . It’s yet to adopt EURO; right now the currency is Zloty.
Poland is the only EU state that has avoided slipping into recession. Since Poland is late boomer it didn’t get chance to slip into recession.
The biggest stock exchange is WSE (Warsaw Stock Exchange).
Number of companies listed are 376 which is less if compared with our NSE.
Poland is included in MSCI Emerging Markets as well as India.
That’s more about Poland as a country, now would like to say something about my stay in there in terms of NEWS again.

Suzlon and me!
My favorite stock is Suzlon. Its 3rd largest wind turbine manufacturing company in the world. At any given time of year, my portfolio is green. It’s not due to profits but due to presence of green energy Suzlon!
Right now, Suzlon is going through a rough patch and my portfolio is in red, deep red!
I was thrilled, when the news flashed that Suzlon’s subsidiary RePower entered Polish market. It entered into a contract with a Germany-based company WSB Group to deliver 15 wind turbines in Poland.
There is a saying in the markets that one should not be emotionally attached with any stock. I need to learn this lesson.

Polish Prez unfortunate air crash
The aircraft carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his aides crashed in Russia leading to the death of all passengers onboard. The plane was carrying Ministers and Army chiefs.
It was heart breaking scene to see scores of car escorting the dead bodies from Warsaw airport. The cars were passing one after another and we lost the count of number of cars. Polish people were seen on either side of roads with flags. It is the most tragic event for Poland after World war.

Volcanic ash eruption debate
The news of Volcano Eyjafjallajökull (no idea how to pronounce it!) emitting ash in Iceland created havoc. It caused the biggest airspace shutdown in Europe since World War II, affecting more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.
It was a hot topic for us since many of my colleagues were supposed to travel on that week. I personally felt that the decision to stop aircrafts for one whole week was over exaggeration. But many others supported the decision since safety of passengers is of higher priority.
There is a news that a neighboring volcano Katla (short and sweet name!) is about to explode and it is more powerful than the present volcano. BEWARE… !!!!!