The paper presents examples of practical application of the taxonomic method, which enables stock exchange investors to construct a synthetic measure of attractiveness of a share investment based on the company´s key financial and market ratios. The method makes use of multivariate comparative analysis.

The study is based on the Warsaw Stock Exchange data relating to several companies in the food and construction business. The empirical data is for the years 1997 and 1998. The calculated synthetic measures of attractiveness of investment in shares have been compared against the actual return on the shares in question in the respective quarters of the relevant period.