A new Market Making Program designed to increase liquidity is launched on the Baltic Market as of today. NASDAQ OMX Tallinn, NASDAQ OMX Riga and NASDAQ OMX Vilnius in order to encourage members to join this voluntary program have offered a 40% discount on the standard trading fees.

The terms of the Market Making program forsee that a NASDAQ OMX Baltic Market member -- a bank or a brokerage firm -- as a market marker has to ensure that the bid and offer orders of no less than EUR 3000 of the value of selected shares have to be available in opening and closing auctions, as well as during 85 percent of trading time. This will ensure that investors will have an opportunity to buy shares as there will be supply in the market and to sell them as there will be demand during all trading session.

"Meeting the need of our market participants -- financial intermediaries, companies seeking to raise capital, and investors -- for a more liquid securities market we have decided by using financial incentives to encourage our members to contribute more actively to market formation" , says Daiga Auzi a-Melalksne, Head of Exchange Services at NASDAQ OMX Baltic Market. "We are pleased to see the first member -- LHV Pank -- sign up for the new Market Making Program and would like to invite other members to join".

The Market Making Program also foresees that the price spread of bid and offer orders cannot be higher than 2.5 percent. By committing to market making activities in at least 3 shares, a member is entitled to a trading fee discount on all shares traded in a given market.

As of July 1, a harmonized variable trading fee of 0.035% in all Baltic equities is set for members (currently, 0.045% apply to trading in NASDAQ OMX Riga and NASDAQ OMX Vilnius listed shares and 0.015% to NASDAQ OMX Tallinn listed shares).

Market Making Program and trading fee harmonization is one more step in implementing the single NASDAQ OMX Baltic Market offering thereby making the Baltic region more accessible and attractive both for institutional and retail investors. NASDAQ OMX Tallinn, NASDAQ OMX Riga and NASDAQ OMX Vilnius have earlier introduced a shared trading platform for equities (INET) and for fixed income and auctions (Genium INET), harmonized trading rules, membership requirements, created Baltic securities lists, indexes, and the Baltic Fund Centre - online database where investors can compare funds offered by various fund managers in Baltic countries.