Riga - The three Baltic stock exchanges stayed fairly flat
Thursday in a day of thin trading, but a pharmaceutical company
provided some cheer.

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia was down 1.76 per cent,
the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was down 1.13 per cent and the Riga
exchange in Latvia rose by a marginal 0.12 per cent.

The Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, closed down 1.45 per cent at 273.9.

Most notable company news of the day came from Latvian
pharmaceutical firm Grindeks, which published an upbeat prognosis for
the end of 2008 and 2009.

Grindeks said its strategy of expanding business activity in Russia
and other CIS states was working and that it is looking to break into
the Chinese market with the planned introduction of its proprietary
heart drug, Mildronate.

Chairman Kirovs Lipmans said: "We will concentrate our activity on
both existing markets and new, prospective markets such as China and
Turkey, as well as entering smaller South Asian markets, for example
Vietnam, in the future."

Lipmans pledged Grindeks to investing between 9 and 11 per cent of
turnover in research and development in order to remain competitive. (dpa)