Baltic stock exchanges launch joint list

The stock exchanges of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia launched on Jan
3. a joint Baltic List of 13 blue-chip companies listed on the three
national exchanges.

The list includes four companies from Lithuania and Latvia each and
five Estonian companies. From Lithuania, shares in Kalnapilis,
Rokiskio Suris, Utenos Trikotazas and Vilniaus Bank are listed.

The Latvian companies on the Baltic List are Balta, Latvijas Gaze,
Latvijas Unibanka and Ventspils Nafta, while Estonia is represented
by Eesti Telekom, Eesti Uhispank, Hansapank, Optiva Pank and Norma.

The companies included on the joint list have a total market
capitalization of 1.9 billion euros.

The Baltic bourses plan to launch a monthly publication providing
statistical data on the Baltic List companies starting from February.
The stock exchanges will also begin calculating an index to reflect
the movement of prices of securities listed on the Baltic List.

More details about the Baltic List companies are provided on the
three Baltic bourses' Internet homepage, while an online trading
overview is available at the real-time trading information site of
the Tallinn Stock Exchange
(http://online.tse.ee/english/balticlist.html).