In February the Riga Stock Exchange trading volume amounted to EUR 28.8 million: equity trading volume was EUR 1.57 million, while debt trading volume was EUR 27.2 million. Latvijas KuÏniecÓba with EUR 0.44 million was the turnover leader, followed by Ventspils Nafta with EUR 0.27 million and RÓgas KB with EUR 0.24 million.
Latvijas G'ze with EUR 327 million continued to be the largest company according to market capitalisation. Equity market capitalisation at the end of January stood at EUR 902.8 million, while debt market value was EUR 597.8 million. Dow Jones Riga Stock Exchange index lost 0.02% since the end of January; yet, it has demonstrated a 7.65% increase since the beginning of the year. RÓgas KB was the main price winner of the month with 11.84%, whereas Kaija (currently transferred to Surveillance list) was the main loser with 31.25%.
Riga Stock Exchange Group (RSE and LCD) consolidated sales of 2003 amounted to LVL 1,049,793, and the pre-tax profit was LVL 303,102.
Tallinn
Turnover of Tallinn Stock Exchange reached EUR 44.7 million in February, with TALSE index closing at 321.4 points. In February the index also reached 322.9 points, its highest since November 5, 1997. On February 23 TSE approved Carnegie Investment Bank AB as its new member. Carnegie will start trading Estonian securities via its Finland Branch in Helsinki. The number of TSE member firms is now 13, with four of them trading from abroad. On February 12, I-List company Estiko submitted an application to the TSE Listing Committee to delist the shares of the company as a result of the takeover bid of February 9, 2004. Listed companies published their 2003 financial results. Among the main list companies, the net profit of Estonian Telecom stood at EUR 66.2 million or EUR 0.48 per share (2002: 66.5 million EUR or EUR 0.48 per share). The other TSE flagship, Hansabank, made a profit of EUR 130.9 million, up 9% from the previous year. The 2003 net profit figure of construction company Merko Ehitus was EUR 11.8 million, up from EUR 6.3 million. The figure of car safety belts producer Norma was EUR 8.2 million, down 34%. Net profit of Tallinna Kaubamaja rose 47% to EUR 4.2 million. The percentage change of the consumer price index in February compared to January was 0.3%. By preliminary estimations the Estonia's economic growth was 5.8% in Q4 2003 y-o-y basis, the Statistics Office reported.
Vilnius
The total turnover of the month reached EUR 78.8 million, surpassing total turnover of any month in 2003. The same applies to the turnover of shares EUR 30.7 million and government securities EUR 48 million. Moreover, in February the share turnover on the central market hit a lifetime high of EUR 20.1 million.
In February, only 9 shares went downwards. Prices of over 10 shares advanced by more than 10%, and 13 shares broke or repeated their all-time highs. Like in January, share indices continued to rise. It was in 1997 when LITIN-G reached 2000 points for the last time. Most actively traded shares index LITIN-10 hit a new record at 2622.59 points.
Lietuvos Telekomas AB yielded its leading position on the central market to Mazeikiu Nafta AB, the turnover of which reached EUR 4.3 million on February 6, and to Vilniaus Vingis AB. The shares of the mentioned three companies were leaders in terms of trading volumes that exceeded EUR 3.0 million. Monthly turnover of 18 shares outstripped EUR 290 thousand. Investors also actively traded in shares of Vakaru Skirstomieji Tinklai AB, Alita AB and Rokiskio Suris AB that announced tender offers after their privatisation. Since the beginning of 2004, 450 transactions are concluded per trading session on average, and an average daily share turnover reaches EUR 2.0 million and that of debt securities EUR 2.9 million. These indicators are more than 1.7 times higher than in 2003. The share turnover of the two months of this year comprises 49% of the share turnover for the whole 2003, and turnover of Government securities and the total turnover constitute 28% and 1/3 accordingly.
