Trading on the Stock Exchange, although less dynamic than in the previous three months, was quite active and unpredictable. In October, market decisions of the investors were stimulated not only by the rising national economy, but also by company announcements of the performance results during the nine months of the year, the launch of pension funds, privatisation results of alcohol producers and other news.
38 companies of the Official and Current Lists announced profitable performance during the nine months of the year, and 8 companies reported a loss on the Exchange information system. These are anticipated Œ and far better Œ results than those of the corresponding period last year. The outcome of privatisation of alcohol-producing companies, however, did not meet expectations of investors Œ the State Property Fund signed contracts of sale of the controlling interest only with the winners of the tender for privatisation of Stumbras AB and Vilniaus Degtinë AB; a new tender will be announced for the privatisation of the other two alcohol producers.
Investors were following the news about the major shareholders of the Yukos oil company with a growing concern. Their optimism, stirred by the high performance results of Maþeikiø Nafta AB, at certain moments was replaced by frustration, which changed the situation on the market almost daily. An example of such fluctuation could be the trading session of October 6, when share prices of 19 shares went down, and the indices LITIN-G and LITIN-10 lost 1.3% and 0.7% of their weightings respectively. During the following trading session the index values went up to the previous position and even higher.
Due to the reaction toward the stock news, the falling shares outnumbered the rising ones. During the month of October, the share price of Anykðèiø Vynas AB precipitated by 43%, of Klaipëdos Nafta AB Œ by 23%, of Alita AB Œ by 21%, and of Maþeikiø Nafta AB Œ by 18%. It must be noted that indices were steadily going up until October, which is the first month of the current year to record the lowest monthly index weighting. On October 31, over a hundred changes were registered in the LITIN-10 weighting during continuous trading. During the month, the weighting of the share index LITIN decreased by 2%, while LITIN-G and LITIN-10 fell by more than 7%. The same decrease was recorded in the capitalization of the listed shares; at the end of the month it amounted to LTL 8 873 million.
In October, the demand for shares on the market went down (in October the supply/demand ratio reached almost 5, while in September this ratio was 2.4). The number of buying investors, however, remained the same Πonly in the months of the third quarter the number of transactions concluded per month was higher than that in October, although the falling prices reduced the value of those transactions, namely, the average value of a share transaction, compared to that in September, decreased from LTL 7 thousand to LTL 6 thousand. The share turnover (LTL 38 million) during the month under review was higher than that in October last year (LTL 23 million), but exceeded the monthly turnover of shares only of the first three months of the year, going down by 44%, compared to that in September. The turnover of T-bills was LTL 126 million, analogous to that in October 2002, but the highest in the last four months of the current year. Total turnover of securities in October equalled LTL 165 million.
In the year-to-date, the Exchange turnover reached LTL 1,659 million, 3.5% up on the corresponding period last year. Share trading was lower by 10% Πin the total securities turnover they accounted for 30% (in October 2002, 34%). However, the largest portion of the share turnover, 54%, was received on the central market (in October 2002, 19%).
