Baltic Stock Exchanges: Baltic List To Be Expanded

As a next step towards the creation of a joint Baltic market, the current Baltic List consisting of 15 largest listed companies of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian stock exchanges will be expanded to comprise all main list companies of the three exchanges as of today, 1 July 2004.

The securities will continue to be legally listed on their current home exchanges, but marketed jointly under the Baltic List.

The introduction of joint Baltic market is related to the adoption of the new trading platform in Estonia and Latvia at the end of September. Nordic-Baltic trading platform will be adopted in Vilnius in 2005.

"The Baltics are seen as a common investment area and our intention is to integrate the markets as much as possible ahead of the step into the new Nordic-Baltic trading platform," Gert Tiivas, president of OMHEX Baltic Operations, said.

At the end of September, I-List or secondary list companies will form the Baltic I-List, and all listed bonds will be integrated into the Baltic Bond List. Concurrently a new Baltic index will be launched, which will serve as a benchmark for the Baltic securities market. It will be capitalisation-weighted total-return index, comprised of all Baltic List securities. History of the index will be calculated back to January 2000.

To view the composition of the Baltic List from 1 July 2004, click here.

As of 30 June 2004, the total market capitalisation of the Baltic List stood at EUR 5.09 billion.