The Baltic Index of 15 blue chip stocks continued its upward trajectory last week, adding 0.67 percent to end the week at 221.71 points, yet another record high.
Turnover on Baltic List stocks reached 9 million euros, with 90.8 percent of this trade coming on Estonian stocks and Lithuanian equity accounting for another 6.4 percent.
The market's winner last week was Norma, with the seat-belt maker's stock price rocketing up 10.7 percent to close at 80.74 kroons (5.1 euros).
Lauri Lind, head of the stock market department at Hansabank Markets, said the situation regarding Norma was the same throughout the week, with the price driven higher by buying interest that met little response from the selling side.
Investors, said Lind, were not keen to sell Norma stock before the release of second-quarter results in mid-July.
Estonia's two other blue chips, Eesti Telekom and Hansapank, lost less than 1 percent of their value during the outgoing week.
"With the rapid rise that Telekom has made, we anticipated already a couple a weeks back that profit taking must start at some point. Now it's arrived," Lind said.
Eesti Telekom eased 0.8 percent to close on July 4 at 109.8 kroons.
"Telekom's price might stabilize at the present level. However, if the quarterly results to be released in the middle of July offer a positive surprise, the price may rise again too," Lind said.
Hansapank, the Baltic markets' most capitalized stock, finished the week off 0.7 percent at 278.8 kroons.
"In Hansa's case we have a [resistance level] at 18 euros where the price won't move any higher. There are sellers among foreign investors too, but the high turnover shows trading interest," Lind said.
The biggest news on the Latvian stock market was announcements about dividends from the 2002 profit by two major companies — Latvijas Gaze gas company and Ventspils Mafta oil terminal.
Analysts believe, however, that the dividend proposal by shareholders, which foresees distributing 40 percent of last year's profit, was surprising given the company's difficult financial situation and was probably made in order to improve the company's image before a possible sale of shares.
Ventspils Nafta gained 2 percent over the week and boasted the highest turnover at 112,000 lats (175,000 euros).
The indexes of the Lithuanian exchange staged a solid rally led by bluechip Lietuvos Telekomas and the distillery Alita, which stole the show in the beginning of the week on interest stirred by the upcoming privatization.
Telecommunications leader Lietuvos Telekomas, quoted on the Official List, was off 0.72 percent to 1.38 litas (0.40 euros) on a turnover of 1 million litas.
The Current List star performer Alita soared 13.8 percent in the wake of news that Liuditerzo Bosca, executive and owner of the Italian group Bosca, was named the winner of the state-run tender for control over the company. Bosca offered over 90 million litas for a 83.77 percent stake.
On July 1 two block trades in Panevezio Pienas (a 13.36 percent stake) raked in 4.3 million litas. The holding, previously owned by the Swedish company SwedeAgri Invest, was acquired by Pieno Zvaigzdes, which boosted its stake in rival Panevezio Pienas to 64 percent.
Pieno Zvaigzdes ended the week unchanged.
