Baltic Morning News
Weakness in Tallinn continues. Tallinn stock exchange was down for the seventh day in a row yesterday. The index OMXT has now lost 6.6% from mid February. Tallinna Kaubamaja, Tallink and Merko have lost the most in the main list (-13.1%, -10.3% and -10.0%, respectively). At the same time, one of the most actively traded stocks, Olympic Casino, was actually up yesterday and the brewery Saku has gained 8.8% from mid February (thanks to extra dividend announcement). We still advise to remain cautious and wait for the sentiment to turn before rushing to the buy side.
Estonia’s budget surplus amounts to 3% of GDP. According to Finance Ministry, Estonia's general government surplus last year rose to 3.3% of GDP. The surplus totalled EUR 428m, up from EUR 262m in 2005 (2.3% of GDP). Given that risks concerning overheating and hard landing have been increasingly in focus, it is wise to have some back up for the worse times.
Estonia’s exports outgrew imports in December. According to Estonian Statistical Office, the total volume of Estonia’s foreign trade was EEK 23.3 billion in December, whereof EEK 10 billion (43%) was exports and EEK 13.3 billion (57%) was imports. In December, export volume increased by 18% y-o-y, while imports went up 17% y-o-y over the same time. The main export markets were Finland, Sweden and Russia, while most of the imports came from Finland, Germany and Russia.
RST (No Coverage) aims for Main list. BBN writes that the operator of a power grid in eastern Lithuania, RST, has applied to be listed on the Official List of the Vilnius Stock Exchange. According to Arvydas Zakalskis, CFO of the company, the main list would enhance investor confidence and attract large financial funds. Based on 9M/06 figures we estimate the share trades at a PER 2007 of above 70x, i.e. not interesting in our view.
Moody’s raises ratings. Rating agency Moody’s Investors Service announced the upgrade of Parex Banka’s rating to investment grade. Parex is the only private financial institution in the Baltic States to receive a long term deposit rating Baa3/investment grade. Also, Moody’s raised the long-term rating of DnB NOR Bank from Aa3 to Aaa.
We expect Baltika (Neutral) to report Q4/06 today.