There are fortunes to be made on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Last year, the WIG index rose 85 per cent while 20 of the 83 listed companies more than doubled their value. One of the important factors explaining upward trends in 1996 and again at the start of this year was Poland's healthy macro-economic condition - including a six per cent increase in GDP, stable interest rates and the reining-in of inflation, expected to stabilise at 13-14 per cent this year. Political stability encouraging greater foreign portfolio investment also pushed up prices. One big hit last year was Computer Land, whose price increased 396 per cent as the market embraced information technology. Top gainers include WBK, Agros, Chemiskor, Domplast and Elcktrim - all of which chalked up increases of over 200 per cent. WBK, up 273 per cent last year, was one of exchange's best-performing banks. President Jacck Ksen said market success was attributable to sound fundamentals along with a strategic investor, Allied Irish Banks. 'Prospects for the entire banking sector are very good,' Mr Ksen said. Companies such as Elektrim, Agros, Rolimpex and Animex owe their popularity to a consistent strategy of building holding companies in production and trade. Elektrim was helped by its involvement in a company operating one of Poland's two GSM cellular telecommunications networks. Domplast gained after US giant Rubbermaid took over 89 per cent of its stock.