OREANDA-NEWS. January 16, 2009. On the securities markets, last year will be marked by a global financial crisis. Pessimism reached the securities market earlier than in the real economic statistics, resulting in a more than 60% drop in stock exchange indices (OMX Tallinn -62.98%, Baltic Benchmark Cap GI -66.69%), reported the press-centre of NASDAQ OMX Group.

The annual turnover of NASDAQ OMX Tallinn Stock Exchange was MEUR 618 at 77 265 transactions. The average value of a stock transaction was EUR 7997.

The largest stock exchange group in the world, which was formed last year as a result of the merger of NASDAQ and OMX, launched the trading environment NASDAQ OMX Europe in September, which is based on the technology platform of NASDAQ OMX; at the end of the year, the information transfer services of the Nordic and Baltic stock exchanges were joined under the trademark GlobeNewswire.

Since January of this year, the price information of the stocks listed on the Baltic stock exchanges of NASDAQ OMX can be observed in real time and as of February, the Baltic stock exchanges will extend their trading period by two hours. As a result of the integration process, the business name of Tallinn Stock Exchange was changed – as of December 2008, it is NASDAQ OMX Tallinn.

At the contest Baltic Market Awards, which took place for the third year in a row, the Baltic stock exchanges of NASDAQ OMX identified the publicly traded company with the best investor relations in the region, which in 2008 was SAF Tehnika; SEB Bankas was nominated as the best member of the stock exchange. Of the companies listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange, Baltika was recognised as the best.

At the end of last year, Tallinn Stock Exchange launched the book "Vaartpaberite teejuht" in order to raise the awareness of people, which was a sequel to the investment textbook "Investeerimise teejuht" published in 2007. Similarly to last time, this book will also be presented to all Estonian upper secondary schools, universities and libraries as a gift, so that investment related materials would be available for all interested people.

As a result of the division of AS Merko Ehitus, the shares of AS Jarvevana, a new issuer, were listed in the main list of Tallinn Stock Exchange in 2008. In relation to the takeover bid of AS Carlsberg, AS Saku Olletehas was removed from the main list of Tallinn Stock Exchange on 20 September 2008. In 2008, Instinet (UK), Finhill (Lithuania), SEB AB (Sweden), Bankas Finasta (Lithuania), and Evli Bank (Finland) became members of the Baltic stock exchanges; Ukio Bankas (Lithuania) became a pan-Baltic member and Nordnet (Rootsi) and Evli Securities (Estonia) ended their membership. As of the end of the year, the Baltic stock exchanges had 42 members.

Trade in the Baltics also showed signs of slowing down; the number of transactions dropped by almost one fifth during the year. A total of 69 470 cross-border securities transactions were made between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In addition, 132 transactions were made between Estonia and Poland. The cooperation agreement between the Estonian Central Securities Depository and the Polish Central Securities Depository was entered into in July 2007.

As a result of the global financial crisis, the volumes of investment funds also decreased. As at the end of 2008, the volume of investment funds registered in the Estonian Central Securities Depository was MEUR 257.6, of which MEUR 47.4 was made up of investments by private persons.The volume of additional pension funds dropped compared to the previous year, but the number of new joiners increased at a constant pace throughout the year. As at the end of 2008, 49 861 people had joined the additional pension funds.

As at the end of the year, 6666 companies were registered in the Estonian Central Securities Depository, of which 4842 were public limited companies. In 2008, the number of private limited liability companies in the Estonian Central Securities Depository increased by 262; there were 1824 private limited liability companies registered in the Central Registry at the end of the year. The value of the securities registered in the Estonian Central Securities Depository is more than BEUR 6.1.