Orlen Declines as PKO Bank Cuts Refiner to Sell: Warsaw Mover

PKN Orlen SA (PKN) fell the most in a week after PKO Bank Polski SA’ brokerage downgraded Poland’s largest oil refiner to sell on a deteriorating outlook.

The shares slumped as much as 3.2 percent, the most since Dec. 28, and traded 2.5 percent lower at 51.1 zloty as of 11:20 a.m. in Warsaw. Today’s volume on the stock was about 32 percent of the three-month daily average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The current year will be “worse” for the company on a year-on-year basis due to “significant volatility of the macroeconomic environment, fall in refining margins and rising supply of the refinery capacities,” Monika Kalwasinska, a Warsaw-based analyst at PKO, said in a note today.

The refining margin dropped to $1.2 per barrel in December from $3.8 a barrel in November, Orlen said on its website yesterday. PKO cut the refiner from hold and raised its share- estimate to 39.14 zloty from 35.31 zloty.

To contact the reporter on this story: Piotr Bujnicki in Warsaw at pbujnicki@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net