Riga - The three Baltic stock exchanges ended the week quietly Friday, with relatively small movements recorded at the close of trading.

The NASDAQ OMX Tallinn exchange in Estonia was up 0.31 per cent, the Vilnius exchange in Lithuania was down 1.35 per cent and the Riga exchange in Latvia dipped by 
0.59 per cent.

The Baltic Benchmark Index (BBI), which includes data from all three exchanges, closed down 0.26 per cent at 273.18.

Some cheer for the region was provided courtesy of East Capital economist Marcus Svedberg. East Capital is one of the leading investors in the region and in an online question and answer session, the influential economist expressed confidence in Eastern Europe's banking system.

Svedberg added that though Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads had increased for countries including the Baltic states amid fears of a possible default, they had dipped again in recent days.

"As we go forward, these CDS spreads will continue to come down," Svedberg said.

"If we take things into perspective, I don't see that the last few months' currency developments have been so dramatic." (dpa)