In March the Riga Stock Exchange trading volume amounted to EUR 38.19 million. Though in absolute terms debt trading dominated (EUR 31.01 million), equity trading reached EUR 7.18 million, which is more than twice as much as in February (EUR 3.09 million). Latvijas balzams with EUR 5.54 million was the leading equity in terms of trading volume. The reason for the increased activity was the take-over bid by S.P.I Distilleries B.V. to the rest of Latvijas balzams shareholders (at LVL 1.56 per share). Latvijas Gâze with EUR 348.17 million continued to be the top company in terms of capitalisation, to be followed by Ventspils nafta with EUR 124.77 million and Latvijas kuìniecîba with 82.8 million.
During March a number of companies experienced notable gain in price: Latvijas balzams 178.18%; Ditton 75%; Liepâjas metalurgs 40%; Rîgas TF 28.57%; Rîgas KB 28%; Olainfarm 23.08%; Ventspils nafta 7.14%. Kaija lost 47.62% of its previous month's close value; the company was also transferred to Surveillance list due to initiation of insolvency procedure.
Equity market capitalisation at the end of March stood at EUR 723.9 million (a 3.72 % increase since the end of February). Total debt market value was EUR 559.31 million. Dow Jones Riga Stock Exchange index has increased by 4.58% since the end of February; the increase since the beginning of the year is already 11.24%. The Riga Stock Exchange and Latvian Central Depository have released the performance results for the Year 2002: consolidated Group turnover amounted to LVL 1.45 million (EUR 2.37 million); share capital at the end of the year was LVL 0.89 million (EUR 1.46 million). The Group closed the year with a LVL 0.26 million (EUR 0.42 million) profit before taxes.
Tallinn
Trading activity on the Tallinn Stock Exchange showed considerable rise in March: the turnover was 26 million euros, or up by 63% from the previous month, while the TALSE index ended slightly higher at 208.62.
Tallinn Port bonds were listed on March 20. The 100 million EEK (EUR 6.4 million) issue yields 3.4% and it will mature in 2006. Tallinn Port issue is currently the only corporate bond issue on the Tallinn bourse, and first new listing on the Bonds list since year 2000. Due to changes in the Estonian legislation, funds are from now on required to invest majority of their holdings to the regulated market instruments, thus about 10 additional issuers are in the listing pipeline. Hansapank launched a 3-year 300 million EUR Eurobond issue at a spread of 55 basis points over mid swaps, and the yield of 3.26%. Estonia's 2002 gross domestic product (GDP) showed an annual growth of 5.8%, according to preliminary calculations by the Statistics Office. The growth in the last quarter of 2002 was 5.9%. The growth was highest in Q2 (7%). By economic activities, compared to 2001, the value added increased the most in construction (14.7%), and in hotels and restaurants (12.7%).
Foreign direct investment to Estonia was down to 330 million euros in 2002 from 603 million euros a year before. The Bank of Estonia said that the current account deficit was 12.5% of GDP in 2002, up from 6.1% a year before. The gap was mainly due to deficit in the foreign trade balance. Exports were down to 1.5%, while imports grew by 5.3%. Unemployment rate in Estonia was down to 10.3% in 2002, compared to 12.6% the year before, according to the Statistics Office.
Vilnius
At the quarter-end, shares of three more companies were admitted to the Current Trading List. Also notable is that investors and shareholders were more attentive to the announcements of corporate activity results and market prices of shares and reacted to the changes accordingly by becoming more interested in the shares of companies undergoing privatisation. Those tends were reflected by the Stock Exchange trading results of the 1st quarter's last month showing that in March the turnovers of shares, debt securities, and the total turnover hit the record level of EUR 11 million, EUR 40 million and EUR 51 million accordingly.
The central market was the place of the most active trading, with the share supply surging by 16% and the demand - by 21%. During the month under review, demand of 16 shares exceeded their supply. Most transactions were concluded regarding shares of Klaipëdos Nafta, Lietuvos Telekomas, Linas, Stumbras, and Vilniaus Vingis. The market price of 22 shares moved in the upward direction, while in the instance of 7 shares the price growth rate exceeded 10%. March was the second consecutive month seeing the values of all the share indices grow. The welcomest rise was the upswing of LITIN-G, which in March surpassed the 1000 point mark and boosted optimism of the market participants. Likewise, the Q1 was marked by a gradual upswing of the share turnover on the CM, which in March totalled EUR 3.6 million thus exceeding the average of 2002. The March turnover of shares in other transactions amounted to EUR 7.8 million failing to mark up to the average monthly level of 2002 though being the highest during the current three months. As much as 64% of this turnover went to the shares of Sanitas AB and EUR 0.6 million went to the shares of two privatised companies.
