Total Latvian capital market trading volume in August just exceeded EUR 107 million (LVL 60.66 million). Unusually, the equity market with traded amount EUR 66.2 million (LVL 37.5 million) was in dominance over debt securities, and share trading reached the highest monthly turnover volume of this year.
Impressive numbers of equity market should be explained by intensive trading of Latvijas G‚ze shares that alone generated close to 99% of trading volume. Trading of Latvijas G‚ze shares was active in both block trading market and continuous market at variable prices. Also, on August 30 the auction of Latvijas G‚ze shares took place when all 1,197,000 shares were sold for EUR 10.82 (LVL 6.13) apiece constituting EUR 12.95 million (LVL 7.34 million) turnover. The remainder of state owned shares (3% of share capital) is expected to be put up to auction soon, at the end of September or so.
Both indexes of Riga Stock Exchange have increased during August. The Dow Jones RSE appreciated by 6.93% surpassing 200 points limit (202.46 points), and, what is more, in the middle of August the value of index, thanks to Latvijas G‚ze share price growth, reached 3 years high value ñ 289.89 points. RICI price index, compared with end of July value, gained 0.18% during last month. Also, capitalization has increased from EUR 700 million (LVL 396.78 million) to EUR 734.7 million (LVL 416.39 million), thus, comprising 5% increase. Total nominal value of debt securities reached EUR 542.4 million (LVL 307.39 million) adding EUR 4.2 million (LVL 2.4 million) in August.
Compared with June, there has been a deflation in July in Latvia, i.e., the CPI has declined by 0.5%, while Producers Price Index (PPI) was up by 0.2%, as the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia reports. The unemployment rate as of August 1 has diminished by 0.1% to 7.7%.
Tallinn
Tallinn Stock Exchange turnover amounted to EEK 255 million (EUR 16 million) in August, which is up by 18% compared to previous month. TALSE index lost 6.9% of its value, closing at 127.64.
Furniture and ski producer Viisnurk will increase its share capital by issuing 850,000 new shares to finance the expansion of its operations and potential take-overs in wood processing sector. The shares will be issued at price of EEK 44 (EUR 3) or EEK 34 above par value of a share. The subscription period will be from August 21 to September 10, 2001.
The share capital of the secondary list company Viisnurk will amount to EEK 53 million (EUR 3.4 million) after the share issue. Shares to be issued amount to 16% of share capital after share issue.
On August 28, TSE decided to delist the shares of main list company Pro Kapital Grupp (PKG), effective as of September 29. The factors for delisting are PKG's long-term and repeated delay of information disclosure, fully or partially keeping significant information undisclosed, disclosing incorrect, inadequate and misleading information.
Additionally, the company's related persons have repeatedly violated the restrictions for trading in issuer's shares as of in line with the TSE Rules and Regulations.
Estoniaís economic growth in the second quarter of 2001 was 5.2% compared to the same period a year ago, the preliminary estimates of the Statistical Office show. The relevant GDP growth for the first quarter was 5.8%.
The international rating agency Fitch said that it upgraded Estonia's Long- and Short-term foreign currency ratings to 'A-' (A minus) and 'F1' from 'BBB+' and 'F2' respectively. The Long-term local currency rating was raised to 'A+' from 'A'.
Vilnius
In August, two companies registered the increase of the authorised capital. Ekranas raised its capital from LTL 151.5 million to LTL 174.5 million and Grafobal Vilnius increased is capital from LTL 6.5 million to LTL 8.9 million. Kauno Energija registered a reduction of the authorised capital from LTL 119.4 million to LTL 118.3 million. Lietuvos Taupomasis Bankas (LTB) informed about distribution of the new share issue which was acquired by the Bankís owner AS Hansapank. The authorised capital of LTB will be increased to LTL 317.3 million. Shareholders of Ma²eiki¯ Nafta AB (MN) approved the procedure of the reduction of the companyís authorised capital, which enables the Russian company Yukos to become a shareholder of MN upon acquisition of the two newly issued share issues and a strategic investor as well.
During eight months of the year, the total turnover of the Stock Exchange amounted to LTL 1078.6 million (EUR 297.4 million), which is nearly by 29% more than during the same period last year, and accounted for 62.3% of the annual turnover of 2000. Share turnover of LTL 333.4 million (EUR 91.9 million) and that of debt securities of LTL 745.2 million (EUR 205.4 million) demonstrated a similar growth. As the activity on the central market slightly recovered this year, the turnover, amounting to LTL 104.9 million (EUR 28.9 million), exceeded central market turnover during the same accountable period of the previous year by 43% and made up 81% of the total central market turnover in 2000.
