Estonian securities market in the first quarter of 2010

15.04.2010 TLN

In the first quarter of the present year, NASDAQ OMX Tallinn Stock Exchange Index increased by 41.3%; on an annual basis, the increase amounted to 113.2%. Since the beginning of the year, 220 353 people have continued making contributions to funded pension.

At the beginning of this year, people were offered the option of continuing their contributions to funded pension without any contributions by the state. 220 353 people, which is only 37% of all who have joined the second pension pillar, decided to continue making the contributions. 56% of the people who are continuing to contribute are women and 44% are men.

The EPI Index, which shows the average productivity of funded pension funds, increased to 138.44 points by the end of the first quarter, increasing by 5% during the quarter. The volumes of funded pension funds increased in the same extent, amounting to EEK 15.6 billion at the end of the quarter, which makes an annual growth of as much as 31%.

The share prices of eleven companies increased by more than 20% during the quarter, the share prices of five of these (Silvano Fashion Group, Tallink Grupp, Viisnurk, Olympic Entertainment Group and Merko Ehitus) increased by more than 50%. Due to the departure of Eesti Telekom, the market value of publicly traded companies dropped to EUR 1.5 billion.

The price movements of shares were affected by the increase in the likelihood of the imminent adoption of the Euro and the economic indicators that have improved in most European countries and companies. The vast increase in share prices in January was followed by adjustments in February and more moderate growth in March.

• As of 13 January of this year, shares of Eesti Telekom are no longer listed on Tallinn Stock Exchange.
• In February, 4 stock exchanges in the Nordic and 3 in the Baltic countries adopted the trading system INET, which from now on is used at all NASDAQ OMX Stock Exchanges across the world.
• On 17 March, AS Automotive Holding, which belongs to Autoliv Group, announced a conditional takeover bid for acquiring all shares of AS Norma for the price of EEK 92.31 per share. The prerequisite for the success of the bid is the acquisition of at least a 90% holding.
• The membership of the stock exchange member SNORAS-Jusu Tarpininkas from Lithuania on the Tallinn Stock Exchange ended on 31 March. As of 1 April, Reģionālā investīciju banka from Latvia is a new member of Tallinn Stock Exchange.
• In March, the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Central Securities Depository approved the application of Compensa Life Vienna Insurance Group SE for being granted the status of an account administrator. In total, 14 account administrators are registered in the Estonian Central Securities Depository.

More statistics & information here.