Covid-19, Financial Services, Good for Business, Investments, Lithuania, Security

COVID-19 and the announcement of the pandemic had triggered a strong reaction in global financial markets with stock indices plummeting by 30 percent or even more in a short span of time, Renatas Zeknys of Swedbank said adding that the immediate adoption of economic stimulus plans by various countries had gradually brought confidence back to the markets.

“Market developments have also fuelled investor activity in Lithuania – after the initial risk-averse offloading of stocks, they came back to the markets soon in a rather optimistic mood,” Zeknys said in a press release.

As estimated by Swedbank, the number of transactions carried out by private customers soared eightfold in March and April from the same period last year and the total turnover of investment instruments more than doubled in the same time period.

Lithuania’s residents tend to choose investment in stocks of Baltic countries' and Western companies.

Meanwhile, Irmantas Pociunas of SEB Bankas pointed out that the number of transactions had increased at least threefold due to uncertainty prevailing in the capital markets.

“Our investors tend to hunt for price troughs or peaks hence that uncertainty fuelled their activity in the market. I wouldn’t say that the Baltic countries stand out among the others in this respect as activity has increased in both our domestic and global markets,” Pociunas told BNS.

Absence of reliable information about the outlook of the coronavirus crisis and the economy made it impossible to make any specific forecasts about how long that investor activity might continue, he noted.

“Activity should remain elevated as long as there is volatility, as long as we wait for news about the improvement of COVID-19 situation or its deterioration. However, if we get very clear and true news about the outlook of COVID-19 or the economy, activity may decrease,” Pociunas said.

Meanwhile, Swedbank warned about the remaining probability of stronger market fluctuations in the near future, which would encourage further investor activity and increased volumes of stock trading. Fluctuations might be triggered by news about the fight against the coronavirus, the economic data published by individual countries and corporate financial performance reports.