The three Baltic stock exchanges registered small losses overall Friday, with a dip in a high-profile Estonian stock dragging the rest of the region down, reported the dpa. The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia was down 2.68 per cent, and the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was almost unchanged, down just 0.63 per cent, while the Riga exchange in Latvia actually rose by 1.30 per cent on thin trading. The Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, dropped by 1.78 per cent to close at 284.59. The week was still a decent one for the Baltic exchanges compared with recent weeks. Overall the BBI gained 4.18 per cent during the week, with some analysts hopeful that the worst may be over for the markets if not the Baltic economies themselves. However, evidence that there are still tough times ahead came with a 14 per cent drop in the share price of Estonian casino operator Olympic Entertainment Group (OEG). OEG has been a firm favourite among institutional investors but they seemed unconvinced by the release of unaudited operating results Thursday that said staff would be laid off and casinos closed as part of a cost-cutting drive. OEG said that "additional administrative restrictions" including smoking bans in casinos in Estonia and an obligation to register casino customers in Lithuania had impacted results but maintained that the fourth quarter of 2008 would be its strongest of the year.
