In April the Riga Stock Exchange trading volume amounted to EUR 36.78 million. Equity trading with EUR 19.96 million this time surpassed debt trading, which was EUR 16.82 million. Ventspils nafta with EUR 11.8 million was the leader of equity market owing to the transfer of a large block of shares. Latvijas balzams with EUR 6.96 million was number two in terms of traded volume; the trading was brisk during the share buyout period from April 7 till May 6. Latvijas Gâze with EUR 345.3 million continued to be the top company in terms of capitalisation; to be followed by Ventspils nafta with EUR 147.1 million and Latvijas kuìniecîba with 90.76 million.
During April a number of companies experienced a notable gain in price: Liepâjas metalurgs 31.43%; Rîgas KB 25%; Rîgas TF 22.22%; Ventspils nafta 20%; Pirmâ banka 14.76%; Olainfarm 12.5%; Latvijas kuìniecîba 11.54%; Valmieras SÐ 9.09% and Grindeks 7.27%. Kaija with -18.18% was the sole price loser from Official and Second list companies.
Equity market capitalisation at the end of April stood at EUR 764.74 million (a 5.64 % increase since the end of March). Total debt market value was EUR 560.57 million. Dow Jones Riga Stock Exchange index has been maintaining the upward trend and has increased by 6.83% since the end of March; the increase since the beginning of the year is already 18.83%.
End of April was the deadline for listed companies to submit their audited annual reports, as well as for releasing the performance results for the first quarter of 2003.
Tallinn
The season of dividend payments made the Tallinn Stock Exchange turnover to jump more than two times to 54 million EUR in April while the TALSE index gained another six per cent. Daily turnover of TSE was 2.6 million EUR.
The number of people joining the funded pension system grew substantially during April: some 9,240 people joined the 2nd pillar compared to 2,500 during March. The total number of people in the 2nd pillar was 224,839 at the end of April. HEX Tallinn anticipates up to 60,000 people to decide in favour of additional pension income during this year.
The Central Bank of Estonia lowered the 2003 economic growth forecast to 4.4% from earlier 5.0%. It said the move was due to worsening prospects of Estonia's trade partners. On the other hand, the growth is expected to be substantially higher compared to the EU countries.
The Central Bank said it expects Estonia's 2003 inflation to settle at 3.2% compared to 3.6% the year before. The current account deficit should lower to 10.9% of GDP (12.2% of GDP in 2002). The forecast is based on the assumption that exports would grow by 12% and domestic demand would stabilise.
Estonia ranks 26th among the 80 countries surveyed in the annual Global Competitiveness Report by World Economic Forum. Estonia was the most successful country among EU accession candidates, Slovenia being 28th, Hungary 29th, and Czech Republic 40th, Lithuania 36th and Latvia 44th.
Vilnius
Over the first quarter of 2003, Lithuania's GDP grew by 9.1%, which induced the Ministry of Finance to increase the forecasted growth of the real GDP of the current year from 4.9% to 6.1% and reduce the projected inflation rate from 2.5% to 0.1%.
In April, debt securities turnover was by a quarter lower than in March, due to which the total securities turnover of the month under review was 9% lower than in the year-high March. Analysis of other transactions with shares, the turnover of which jumped by one third in a month, shows that 9% of transactions were privatisation-related, while the major portion (EUR 9.6 million) were block trades.
Turnover of shares on the CM of the current four months accounts for 42% of the share turnover on the CM over the entire 2002, with the portion of share turnover in the total monthly securities turnover rising from 22% to 36%.
The increased CM vitality caused movements in share prices - share prices of only 12 companies fell during the reviewed month. HC Invalda recorded the biggest rise of share price (83%), the share prices of bank Snoras, Grigiðkës, and Vilniaus Degtinë went up by over 40%. Welcome news for market participants were the positive results of Maþeikiø Nafta AB performance in the 1st quarter of 2003. The company's share price jumped by a third and the capitalisation took the top position among the listed companies. Following the trend of the current two months, the share indices were on the increase: LITIN grew by 5%, LITIN-G by 9%, and LITIN-10 by 7%.
