NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Will Use the Euro Currency for Trading and Clearing from November 22

12.10.2010 VLN

Vilnius, October 12 – NASDAQ OMX Vilnius, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) today announced that it will change its trading and clearing currency for shares on its regulated market from litas to euro as of November 22, 2010. This follows customer feedback and evaluation of the market participant readiness. Trading in shares listed on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius will only be conducted in euro. The Central Securities Depository of Lithuania will provide settlement of transactions in euro via the TARGET2 system.

“By changing the trading and clearing currency on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius to the euro we aim to attract more foreign investors to the Lithuanian securities market. Thanks to lower currency conversion costs the market will capture more interest from foreign investors as well as a majority of the Lithuanian investors who are trading on multiple markets. Thus, this change benefits the financial market as a whole and all investor groups”, said Arminta Saladziene, Chairman of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Management Board.

From 2011, the neighboring country Estonia will adopt the euro as its national currency. This means that two Baltic exchanges will use the same trading and clearing currency, resulting in 95% of all Baltic share market turnover traded in euros. The third Baltic stock exchange, NASDAQ OMX Riga, will also move along with its plan to introduce trading in the euro on its regulated equities market as soon as agreement with market participants and authorities is in place. This will further decrease currency conversion costs, which makes portfolio diversification easier and simplifies portfolio value calculation.

In total, trading and clearing in euro is expected to lead to a more liquid market and bigger market depth, which will benefit all current and potential investors.

The major changes for investors after the implementation of trading and settlement in euros on the regulated market of NASDAQ OMX Vilnius are:

    – Euro will be the trading and settlement currency

    – Due to currency conversion rates, NASDAQ OMX Vilnius together with its customers have decided to reduce the tick size (the minimum step that a share price could move) for NASDAQ OMX Vilnius equities market from 0.01 to 0.001.

Trading information on the NASDAQ OMX Baltic website is already shown in four different currencies (EUR, EEK, LVL and LTL). Price history, graphs and statistics previously shown in EEK, LVL, LTL, EUR will continuously be shown in that respective currency. The default currency on the web will be euro. Baltic indices are already calculated in euros, therefore the index graph will be continued adding new trading information.

About NASDAQ OMX

The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. is the world’s largest exchange company. It delivers trading, exchange technology and public company services across six continents, with more than 3,600 listed companies. NASDAQ OMX offers multiple capital raising solutions to companies around the globe, including its U.S. listings market, NASDAQ OMX Nordic, NASDAQ OMX Baltic, NASDAQ OMX First North, and the U.S. 144A sector. The company offers trading across multiple asset classes including equities, derivatives, debt, commodities, structured products and exchange-traded funds. NASDAQ OMX technology supports the operations of over 70 exchanges, clearing organizations and central securities depositories in more than 50 countries. NASDAQ OMX Nordic and NASDAQ OMX Baltic are not legal entities but describe the common offering from NASDAQ OMX exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Iceland, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius. For more information about NASDAQ OMX, visit http://www.nasdaqomx.com.

Media contacts:

Gintare Blazyte, Communication Manager
NASDAQ OMX Vilnius +370 5 272 34 58
gintare.blazyte@nasdaqomx.com

Additional information

Major changes to investors