Riga - Traders were glad to see the back of a worrying week on the three Baltic stock exchanges Friday with the Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), combining data from the Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius exchanges, closing down 2.31 per cent on the day at 228.82.

The BBI managed to drop by more than 10 per cent during the week as the small Baltic bourses joined the larger financial centres in anticipating a major global recession.

On Friday, the NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia fell 2.15 per cent, the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania rose 0.98 per cent and the Riga exchange in Latvia recorded a 1.07 per cent gain.

Even the rare pieces of good news reported came with notable qualifications and caveats. Latvian IT wholesaler ELKO, regarded as one of the region's strongest performers, reported 33 per cent growth in turnover during the first nine months of the year, but because of the weakness of the US dollar the actual growth in its home currency, the Latvian lat, amounted to 18 per cent.

Profits after taxes were just over 13 million dollars.

"The growth figures are not as high as we expected after the results of the first quarter," said ELKO director Janis Casno.

"I believe that the achieved results are good, and we have successfully managed to mitigate the effects of the crisis, thanks to the wide geographic spread of the company's activities," Casno said, adding that a sales downturn would not continue for long as companies realize investment in IT is still necessary. (dpa)