NASADAQ OMX Riga Announces the Winners of the 2010 Contest of Bachelors and Masters Theses

21.01.2011 RIG

Riga, January 21, 2011 – As part of the Baltic Market Awards ceremony NASDAQ OMX Riga announced the winners of the 2010 contest of bachelors and masters theses. The research papers on the topic of the Latvian and Baltic securities market presented by the winners were highly appreciated by the Jury.

Laurynas Barauskas and Justinas Noreika, students from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, won the contest and were awarded NASDAQ OMX grant of 1000 EUR. Their bachelor’s thesis was entitled „Momentum in Mature and Emerging Markets under Different Market States: the Case of the Baltic Region”. The runners up were Pēteris Miķelsons and Miks Miķelsons from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga with their bachelor’s thesis „Audit Committees Effectiveness: A Qualitative Study of Latvian and Lithuanian Listed Companies”. Sabīne Mežkaze from Riga Stradin’s University with her paper “Analysis of Investment Funds and their Role in the Latvian Capital Market (in the Context of the EU Member States)” came up as the third.

Laurinas Noreika (Stockholm School of Economics) and Liene Dubava (NASDAQ OMX Riga)

The annual contest has been organized since 2006 in collaboration with Latvian universities and colleges and market professionals. Its objective is to arouse students’ interest on developments in the Latvian and Baltic stock markets as well as the opportunities they are offering to investors and businesses, and to increase students’ awareness and understanding of the role of capital markets in the national economy and to support high-quality research projects devoted to the development of the industry in Latvia and the Baltic countries.

This year the research papers entered for the contest were evaluated by: Liene Dubava, Board Member of NASDAQ OMX Riga and Chairman of the Jury; Nataļja Lāce, Professor, Riga Technical University; Nataļja Točelovska, Head of Brokerage and Securities Issuance, SEB Bank; Tālis Putniņš, a lecturer from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga.

“The research quality of the papers presented for the contest is improving from year to year. Though it becomes more and more difficult for the jury to nominate the winners, the evaluation process is rewarding in itself thanks to the potential demonstrated by the would-be experts of our industry. We are also pleased with the increasing activity from the universities and colleges in Latvia”, says Liene Dubava, Board Member of NASDAQ OMX Riga and Chairman of the contest Jury. The research papers of the winning authors are available on the NASDAQ OMX Riga website.