National Stock Exchange Of Lithuania Monthly Bulletin: March 2003

The current three months could be best characterised as a period of announcements of corporate activity results for the year 2002 and convocation of accounting general meetings. However, the securities market was also influenced by other equally important developments during this period. For instance, Bank Snoras AB, Ukio Bank AB, and Siauliu Bank AB announced intentions to increase their authorised capital, while companies Alytaus Tekstile, paper producers Grigiskes and Naujieji Verkiai informed about a merger. 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 LTL 37.8 m, LTL 137.5 m, and LTL 175.3 m accordingly.

In March, T-bills turnover constituted as much as 78% of the total securities turnover. As in previous months, bonds with over 3-moth maturity were traded most actively.

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. Shares of Lietuvos Dujos, Lisco Baltic Service, Ekranas, Klaipedos Transporto Laivynas, and Anyksciu Vynas attracted fairly much attention and were subject of the biggest amount of trade orders. Most transactions were concluded regarding shares of Klaipedos Nafta, Lietuvos Telekomas, Linas, Stumbras, and Vilniaus Vingis. In March, the CM turnover of shares of 4 companies amounted to over LTL 1 m, while the total amount of other four companies' turnover exceeded LTL 500 thousand. The market price of 22 shares moved in the upward direction, while in the instance of 7 shares the price growth rate exceeded 10%. Also notable are the biggest price increases recorded for Utenos Trikotažas AB and Bank Snoras AB. The increase of the share price of Lietuvos Telekomas AB (15%) and Mazeikiu Nafta AB (7.4%) was the most anticipated price movement. 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 1st quarter was marked by a gradual upswing of the share turnover on the CM, which in March totalled LTL 11.6 m thus exceeding the average of 2002.

The March turnover of shares in other transactions amounted to LTL 26.3 m 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 LTL 2 m went to the shares of two privatised companies. Only three companies' share turnover in other transactions exceeded the threshold of LTL 1 m. Thus a clear trend on the market was the decline in the block trading in shares.

On 20 March 2003, a meeting of the Board of the National Stock Exchange AB was held, during which Chairperson of the Board Asta Ungulaitiene resigned and was replaced by Ana Tursiene, Director Deputy of the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance. The Chairperson Deputy's position was taken by Simona Grineviciene, Director Deputy of the Financial Market Department of the Ministry of Finance. The general meeting of the National Stock Exchange is convened on 30 April.