Stock markets: weekly report (September 17 - 24)

Estonia: bear market dominates during outgoing week

Declining shares prevailed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange during the
entire outgoing week, with the TALSE index dropping 0.81 percent to
close at 103.99 points on Sept. 24. Sten Sumberg, of Suprema, said in
his comments on the outgoing week that the predominant mood had been
relatively pessimistic.

"Those active on the local market don't have a quite clear position.
They are selling on one day and on the next day they are back
buying," Sumberg said.

Hansapank moved between 76.50 kroons ($5.10) and 84.25 kroons during
the week, closing on Friday at 79.35, down 5.37 percent from the
previous Friday.

The biggest losers during the week were Merko Ehitus and Uhispank,
which dropped respectively 13.04 percent, to 16 kroons, and 10.38
percent, to 23.30 kroons.

Speaking about Norma, Sumberg said its share price had moved lower
along with the rest of the market. Norma shed 6.90 percent in the
course of the week, closing at 39.10 kroons. Sumberg said the
direction of Norma's future movement is going to be determined by
developments over an agreement between Norma and the Swedish car
safety parts manufacturer Autoliv, the conditional deadline of which
is near. The only main list issue to finish the week with gains was
Eesti Telekom, sold steeply down in the previous week. Telekom closed
on Friday at 86.50 kroons, 3.90 percent higher than a week ago. The
total turnover of the stock exchange system this week was 69.5
million kroons.

Hansapank was the undisputed leader in terms of turnover in the past
week with 36.4 million kroons, accounting for more than half of the
turnover of the stock exchange. Norma's turnover was 7 million kroons
and that of Eesti Telekom, 6.6 million kroons.

Latvia: Unibanka share
activity up; RSE trend stays put

All of last week, Latvijas Unibanka's shares were the uncontested
leaders on the Riga Stock Exchange, but despite their good showing
and the stability of Latvijas Gaze's share price, stock indexes fell
to new record low levels.

The DJRSE capitalization index dropped 1.31 percent over the week, to
72.22 points, while the RICI price index fell 0.96 percent, to 155.1
points. The indexes were chiefly influenced by the fall in prices of
Valmieras Stikla Skiedra's, Ventspils Nafta's, Staburadze's and
Rezeknes Piena Konservu Kombinats' stocks.

By the middle of the week the Latvian stock market was cahracterized
by big volumes of direct deals with stock prices in these deals
significantly surmounting the current market price.

On Wednesday some 1 million lats ($1.72 million) worth of Unibanka's
shares were traded in block deals. The share price in these deals was
1.13 lats while on the market the share price varied between 0.83 to
0.96 lats.

On the same day Ventspils Nafta's shares cost 0.60 lats in a block
deal while on the RSE the share price slid 5 percent during the week
to 0.37 lats.

The high block deal price of Ventspils Nafta and Unibanka is
attributed to the regrouping of shareholders among these companies.

Ventspils Nafta's share price is unlikely to fall further in the
immediate future because at the current price level the demand for
these shares is more or less stable.

It is expected that the coming week will be rather interesting for
Ventspils Nafta's shareholders since Russia is to make the final
decision about the management of Transneft, the oil transportation
company, and Lithuania will have to give a response to the ultimatum
issued by the U.S. company Williams International as to its
investment in the Lithuanian oil complex.

Along with Unibanka's and Ventspils Nafta's stocks, shares in
Latvijas Gaze, Staburadze and Valmieras Stikla Skiedra saw relatively
active trading.

Investors will probably pay increased attention to Staburadze due to
the problems at its subsidiary Naruta, the pastry factory located in
the eastern region of Latgale. Naruta's share price sank 13 percent
over the week to 0.20 lats, which helped to bring down Staburadze's
shares by 3.7 percent to 1.05 lats.

Suprema brokerage advises investors to follow developments at
Staburadze carefully during the coming week. Shares in Latvijas Gaze
stayed unchanged over the outgoing week and quoted at 1.70 lats. The
forecast is that the national gas company's shares will remain stable
or experience a slight growing trend until Oct. 11, when at a special
auction over a million shares at an initial price of 1.80 lats will
be offered.

Fiberglass manufacturer Valmieras SS' shares fell 7 percent to 0.41
lats. The drop probably has to do with the company's eight month
operation results which show VSS may be unable to meet its profit
target for the year.

The turnover on the Riga Stock Exchange last week was 1.49 million
lats, of which 1.9 million lats, or nearly 80 percent, were generated
by trading in Unibanka's shares.

Lithuania: Stock market activity drops

Last week complete apathy prevailed on the Lithuanian National Stock
Exchange, especially on the last day of the week when none of the
shares saw its turnover climb above the 100,000 litas ($25,000) mark.

The main stock-exchange indexes declined following several weeks of
growth, and the blue-chip Litin-A index fell 3.39 percent, to 545.69
points, and the Litin-10 index dropped 0.55 percent, to 1239.99
points.

The fall of indexes to a great extent was caused by shares in
Vilniaus Bankas moving along the downward slope to 24.04 litas - the
lowest price so far this year - and losing 7.4 percent of their value
over the week.

Almost none of the experts could provide a concrete explanation for
so significant a fall of the bank's share price.

"The bank's shares do not have a more or less serious buyer, but the
number of those willing to sell the shares is growing," VB Vilfima
broker Linas Grinevicius told the Baltic News Service.

"May be, if Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken announces the increase of
its holding in Vilniaus Bankas to 50 percent, the number of those
willing to buy the bank's shares would grow sharply," he said. Market
specialists were unanimous about the fact that the depression
observed on the market for the last few days is to blame for the
downfall. "Last week's stock exchange sessions almost did not differ
from each other - the market is completely silent," he added. Shares
in Bankas Hermis last week were stable at around 120 litas. Baltic
Securities expert Dmitry Dutov believes that anyone who wanted to buy
Hermis shares at 120 litas already did so. "There are enough buyers,
but sellers want to get a higher price than the current one," said
Dutov.

Hermis' shares dropped 0.37 percent during the week to 119.24 litas.
In contrast to Hermis and Vilniaus Bankas, shares in Ukio Bankas
continued to grow. However, most experts believe the price increase
is just speculative.

The total stock-exchange turnover last week was nearly 7 million
litas, of which 4 million litas were from a one-block deal with
shares in Klaipedos Nafta.