National Stock Exchange Of Lithuania Monthly Bulletin - March 2004

The NSEL trading in March was as active as during the first two months of this year. Last month investors assessed the results of 2003 and made forecasts regarding performance of companies in the first quarter. Furthermore, awaiting the decisions of the annual meetings of shareholders, market players adjusted their investments into shares and waited for an opportunity to take the profit. A privatisation tender for Anyksciu Vynas AB, negotiations by the Government of Lithuania with the Russian Gazprom concerning acquisition of a 34% holding in Lietuvos Dujos AB and a long-term supply of gas, company announcements about their intentions to buy up their shares or about increase of the authorized capital, fight between leaders of the dairy sector over Zemaitijos Pienas AB shares kept the market going.

Despite the correction of some share prices at the end of the month, most often by the size of dividend, the prices of 24 shares advanced and those of 13 shares decreased. The prices of Invalda AB, Stumbras AB, Snaige AB and of some other companies' shares hit their lifetime highs. 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 capitalisation of listed shares moved up by 6% to LTL 12bn, and the total market capitalisation grew by 3.5% to LTL 20.4bn. The total trading volume on the NSEL surpassed that of every month in the previous year and repeated those of last February, amounting to LTL 277m, but the share portion in this volume was even higher (48%, instead of 39% in February).

The share turnover of the month topped LTL 100m again, reaching LTL 132m. The sale of the blocks of shares of Utenos Trikotazas AB and Zemaitijos Pienas AB improved the turnover of negotiated deals to LTL 78m. Volumes of tender offer executions could be singled out among other transactions, yet their portion in the share turnover was insignificant. Central market share trading was slightly lower than that of the record month of February and reached LTL 54m. The most active central market players were Vilniaus Vingis AB (LTL 8.2m), Lietuvos Telekomas AB (LTL 5.6m), Snaige AB (LTL 4.4m) and Rokiskio Suris AB (LTL 4.2m). The turnover of debt securities was lower than that in January and February and stood at LTL 144m. 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 LTL 422m, T-bill turnover amounted to LTL 526m, and the total securities turnover constituted LTL 948m, which in general corresponds to 71%, 38%, and 48% respectively of all turnovers of 2003.