BUX Declined on Falling Turnover This Week

The stock index of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) declined this week, closing at 45,268.11 points on Friday, down 358.81 points or 0.79% from a week earlier, MTI reported this Sunday morning along with a brief analysis.

The weekly turnover of the stock market was HUF 23.26 billion, up from HUF 35.72 billion the previous week, with leading shares performing mixed.

In its weekly summary sent to MTI, Equilor Investment Plc. highlighted that the Hungarian stock market index closed the week in the red due to the deteriorating international investor sentiment.

They pointed out that Magyar Telekom performed well despite this. The company closed the fourth quarter with a better-than-expected result, the board of directors has proposed a dividend of HUF 30.6 per share for the 2022 financial year, and the treasury share buyback may amount to HUF 14.6 billion. The company's revenue rose by 3.6% on an annual basis to HUF 199.2 billion in the quarter, close to the HUF 197.9 billion expected by analysts. The revenue growth was helped by strong demand for mobile data revenues, as well as strong growth in broadband revenues, the summary said.

Among the week's events, Equilor highlighted that Goldman Sachs strategist said the Central European sovereign bond market could be a good investment, with the yield spread between dollar-denominated paper in the region and Western-issued sovereigns narrowing. They believe Hungarian, Polish and Romanian papers are safe and relatively cheap, and remain optimistic about the Hungarian currency.

Magyar Telekom gained 11.48% this week, closing at HUF 403 on Friday, with weekly turnover of HUF 927 million.

OTP fell 1.50% this week, closing at HUF 10,800 on Friday, with a weekly turnover of more than HUF 12.5 billion.

Mol rose 1.09%, closing Friday at HUF 2,778, with a weekly turnover of HUF 3.6 billion.

Richter fell 3.63% for the week, closing at HUF 7,705 on Friday, with weekly turnover of more than HUF 5.2 billion.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed the week at 3,575.57 points, down 80.60 points, 2.20% lower than the previous week.