On 3 February, the Government approved the privatisation programs of alcoholic beverage companies Stumbras AB, Alita AB, Anykðèiø Vynas AB, and Vilniaus Degtinë AB. On 12 February, the State Property Fund announced Lithuanian marine company Limarko the winner of the public tender for 80.89% of a block of shares in Klaipëdos Transporto Laivynas AB. The initial price of the block of shares was LTL 48.668 million or LTL 0.46 per LTL 1 par value share.
On 25 February, Utenos Trikotaþas AB registered a reduction of its authorised capital to LTL 19.834 million. Bankas Snoras AB and Ðiauliø Bankas AB announced intentions to increase their share capital. Ðiauliø Bankas AB informed that it would discuss at the general meeting of shareholders an increase of the authorised capital by approx. LTL 5 million and a reduction of the nominal share value from LTL 50 to LTL 1. Alytaus Tekstilë AB also intends to propose to shareholders increasing the authorised capital by issuing a new issue and revoking in it the shareholders' pre-emptive rights.
In February fairly good capital market news boosted prices of listed companies' shares. The prices of Alytaus Tekstilë AB, Maþeikiø Nafta AB, and Snaigë AB shares grew most, while shares of Vilniaus Vingis AB (for LTL 1.9 million), Snaigë AB (for LTL 1.4 million), and Lietuvos Telekomas AB (for LTL 890.3 thousand) were traded most actively on the central market (CM). Active investors expressed interest in the securities of alcoholic beverage producers and shipping companies targeted for privatisation. These tendencies led to a growth of all the Stock Exchange indices. The capitalisation-weighted indices, LITIN and LITIN-G, went up by 3% and 5% accordingly, along with the index of 10 most actively traded stocks, LITIN-10, surging by 5%. Nonetheless, the total securities turnover, compared with the data of last reporting trading month, fell by 44% and, compared with last year's February, by almost 9%, amounting to LTL 77.7 million. Though in total 12% more shares and 27% more T-bills were traded on the CM, the aggregate CM turnover slumped by nearly 5% due to a 7% fall in the amount of transactions on the CM, an almost 8% decrease of an average equity transaction value, and only a 0.3% rise in the value of an average T-bill transaction. The CM turnover totalled to LTL 15.3 million and the equity turnover totalled LTL 17.9 million.
On 14 February, upon the company's request, the shares of Panevëþio Melioracija AB were delisted from the Current Trading List securities group, the issuers of which intend to buy back their own shares and do not seek a long-term quoting of their shares, and transferred to the Unlisted Securities group, to which CM procedures apply.
