In April, the total Latvian capital market trading amounted to EUR 38.06 (LVL 21.62) million, by 20% higher than previous month.
Moreover, the turnover increase was observed in both shares and debt securities market segment; the volumes reached EUR 9.30 (LVL 5.28) million and EUR 28.76 (LVL 16.34) respectively. Price index RICI has shown notable growth already seven months in a row, starting the last October. During April, RICI appreciated by impressive 12.34 per cent or 23.53 points, and as of April 30, 2002 stood at 214.25 points. Further, it should be said that on April 29 RICI closing value reached 216.57 points, which was the highest index magnitude in the last three and a half years since October 1998. The reason behind RICI growth is the fact that since the fall 2001 the share prices for all the companies included in the RSE Official and Second list, hence, in RICI, has increased rather significantly, and for several, even doubled or tripled.
In April, the capitalization index RSE Dow Jones also appreciated considerably, though, not to extent RICI did. As of April 30 RSE Dow Jones was 184.76 points, by 11.81 point or 6.83% higher than at end of March. The RSE capitalization index positive changes were very much influenced by Baltic List security Latvijas Gaze (market cap just below 60 per cent of total), which grew by almost 10%. Venspils nafta that counts for nearly fifth of the market total capitalization also experienced the price increase, thus ensuring the RSE Dow Jones solid growth. What is more, due to observable USD currency rate depreciation, RSE Dow Jones USD increased by even 8.7%.
Due to factors mentioned, also the capitalization of the exchange augmented to EUR 690.35 (LVL 392.12) million as of April 30 compared to EUR 646.85 (LVL 367.41) in March.
Tallinn
April turnover was up 48% from the previous month to 37 million EUR. The TALSE index added 4.39% during the month to close at 187.19, which gives a rise of 29% since the beginning of the year. The funded pensions or the II pillar of the pension systems were launched with the registration of 15 pension funds. During the first week, over 3000 people had joined the system while the Ministry of Finance expects the number to be at about 100,000 by the end of the year.
The Central Bank of Estonia updated its economic growth forecast for 2002, saying it expects it to grow by 4.2% up from its previous forecast of 3.5%. It added that in the long run, the GDP growth rate should reach as high as 5.5-6%.
Consumer prices increased by 1.8% in the first quarter while the annual change compared to the same quarter last year was 4.3%, the Statistics Office said.
Vilnius
Agreements signed between Williams and Yukos regarding longterm supply of crude oil and the latterís participation in the authorised capital of Ma²eiki¯ Nafta, as well as the agreement of Lifosa with the Russian company Eurochim regarding strategic partnership were welcomed by the market. With a view to protecting investorsí interests, enforcement of the requirement of the Lithuanian Securities Commission to remove the companies which failed to account securities in compliance with requirements for account managers established in the laws and other legal acts was of great significance to the securities market. During 15 ñ 16 April, 152 securities of the total nominal value of EUR 68.6 million (LTL 236.9 million) were removed from the tier of Unlisted securities. As a result, the capitalisation of Unlisted securities decreased by 2%.
This month trading at the Stock Exchange was comparatively thin. The total turnover exceeded EUR 50.7 million (LTL 175 million) and was the largest this year so far and by 65% larger than in April 2000. Trading in the Government securities, however, accounted for 82% of this trading volume. Share turnover, as compared with March, lowered by 29% and equalled EUR 8.7million (LTL 30 million). Following the increased share demand, the share supply ñ demand ratio improved to 4.9, whereas share turnover on the central market lowered to EUR 3.4 million (LTL 11.7 million), and that by block transactions decreased to EUR 5.2 million (LTL 18 million). Shares of Panevβio Pienas were actively traded by block transactions (EUR 3.5 million; LTL 12 million). On the central market, a considerably active trading was carried out in shares of Lietuvos Telekomas (EUR 0.64 million; LTL 2.2 million). The decrease in share prices of two Official List companies, namely, Utenos Trikota²as and Lietuvos Telekomas, by more than 10% resulted in a 7% fall of the LITIN index. A considerable rise of share prices of the new Current List companies ñ Lietuvos Energija, Naujieji Verkiai, and Vilniaus DegtinÎ ñ lifted the LITIN-G index to 1023.7 points.
