In March the Riga Stock Exchange trading volume amounted to EUR 29.75 million: equity trading volume was EUR 10.68 million, while debt trading was EUR 19.07 million. Valmieras S-R with EUR 6.56 million was an explicit turnover leader. Latvijas G'ze with EUR 332.6 million continued to be the largest company according to market capitalisation.
Equity market capitalisation at the end of March stepped over the one billion threshold and demonstrated a 11.89% increase over the end-February figure, reaching EUR 1010.15 million. Debt market value was EUR 619.4 million. Dow Jones Riga Stock Exchange index increased by 12.16% since the end of February; the growth since the beginning of the year amounting to 20.74%. Several companies demonstrated a notable price increase: Grindeks +29.7%, Valmieras S-R +25%, Latvijas KuÏniecÓba +23.26%, RÓgas KB +20%.
In March the RSE Investment Fund list was complemented by 4 more funds, managed by Parex Asset Management. Starting with March 29, fund unit trading was launched on the RSE. Currently out of 8 funds listed on the RSE, 2 may be also traded. At the end of March the RSE and LCD AGM of shareholders approved the management bodies for both companies: Guntars KokoreviËs was repeatedly elected Chairman of the RSE Management Board, while Aivars Slokenbergs was repeatedly elected the LCD Chairman of Management Board.
Tallinn
Turnover of Tallinn Stock Exchange reached EUR 49.76 million in March, with TALSE index closing at 339.98 points. During March, the index was as high as 342.43 points, the highest since November 4, 1997.The 16 million EUR bond issue of Sampo Pank was listed on TSE Bonds' List on March 19. The callable subordinated floatingrate bonds have a maturity date of January 27, 2012. Funded pension system funds received EUR 21 million in payments during the first quarter 2004, which increased the total volume of 2nd pillar funds to EUR 85 million. Some 6,375 people subscribed to the funded pension system in Q1. The total number of people in the system was 359,551 as of March 31. The EPI index, which reflects the return on pension funds, grew by 13% in three months to 114.55 as of March 31. The highest return or 116 points was for EPI-50, the index which includes the most aggressive funds. According to preliminary calculations, Estonia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew annually by 4.7% in 2003, the Statistics Office reported. The growth in the last quarter of 2003 was 5.7%.
Vilnius
The total trading volume on the NSEL surpassed that of every month in the previous year and repeated those of last February, amounting to EUR 80 million, but the share portion in this volume was even higher (48%, instead of 39% in February).
The capitalisation of listed shares moved up by 6% to EUR 3.48 billion, and the total market capitalisation grew by 3.5% to EUR 5.91 billion.
The share turnover of the month topped EUR 28.96 million again, reaching EUR 38.23 million. The sale of the blocks of shares of Utenos Trikotazas AB and Zemaitijos Pienas AB improved the turnover of negotiated deals to EUR 22.59 million.Central market share trading was slightly lower than that of the record month of February and reached EUR 15.64 million.
During the month, the NSEL indices rose by additional 5-10%, and from the beginning of the year, the Official list index LITIN grew by 38%, LITIN-G gained 23%, and LITIN-10 improved by 17%. The latter reached a new record of 2797.5 points on March 26. The turnover of debt securities was lower than that in January and February and stood at EUR 41.71 million.
During the first quarter of 2004, the number of transactions concluded on the NSEL per trading session was nearly twice as big as last year. The share turnover increased more than 2.5 times and equalled to EUR 122.2 million, T-bill turnover amounted to EUR 152.3 million, and the total securities turnover constituted EUR 274.6 million, which in general corresponds to 71%, 38%, and 48% respectively of all turnovers of 2003.
