The BUX Continued to Tumble

The Budapest Stock Exchange's leading share index closed with losses for the second week in a row. Among the leading shares, only OTP managed to strengthen.

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) share index fell amid declining turnover during the week, with the BUX closing at 125,733.91 points on Friday, down 0.97%, or 1,230.11 points, from the previous week. Weekly turnover was HUF 106.46 billion, following HUF 109.16 billion the previous week. Leading stocks performed mixed, with Magyar Telekom and OTP strengthening slightly, Richter showing a minimal correction, and Mol closing the week with a significant loss.

The downturn continued on the BSE at the beginning of the week, with the index falling more than 3,100 points (2.45%), led by Mol, which lost more than 5% of its value in two days. On Wednesday, the mood turned favorable, with the index rising 2.3% and OTP's share price rallying 3.2%, but buyers also returned to the Mol market. On Thursday, the index fell again, and the BUX closed the last day of the week in negative territory.

Equilor Investment Ltd. highlighted in its weekly summary that OTP had received further target price increases. Erste changed its recommendation from accumulate to hold, while raising its target price from HUF 28,000 to HUF 43,200. Autonomous Research raised its target price for the bank's shares from HUF 44,248 to HUF 47,231, with the recommendation remaining at "outperform." Accordingly, the bank's stock was the best performing blue chip of the week.

Among the events of the week, it was mentioned that Richter had entered into a research collaboration and option agreement with Swiss company FimmCyte. According to Equilor analysts, the agreement fits in with Richter's strategy in the women's health market and could expand its endometriosis portfolio. In their assessment, the short-term financial impact of the agreement is minimal, but it provides the Hungarian drug manufacturer with a valuable option to distribute a promising product globally.

The summary quotes Zsolt Hernádi's interview with Telex, in which the chairman and CEO of Mol explains that replacing Russian crude oil imports is technically feasible but extremely costly, as Croatia's JANAF charges transit fees four to five times higher than the European market average for using the Adria pipeline. Mol's cash reserves and market position are stable, but the costs of geopolitical conflicts may ultimately be paid by consumers in the region through higher fuel prices, the company executive was quoted as saying.

Mol published its quarterly and annual results on Friday, which Equilor assessed as mixed, with no major surprises. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was mostly in line with expectations, but earnings per share fell to USD 810 million for the year, compared to USD 1,023 million in 2024.

In terms of management's expectations for 2025, Mol underperformed its pre-tax earnings forecast: the actual figure was USD 1.3 billion, compared to the USD 1.6 billion guidance updated in November 2025. They highlighted that the company's guidance for this year points to lower crude oil processing volumes, as indicated by the adjusted EBITDA forecast of USD 3.0 billion compared to USD 3.4 billion in 2025. The growth potential in performance may come from non-organic expansion, namely the acquisition of NIS.

Among the leading stocks:
Mol was again the worst performing blue chip this week. The oil stock fell 5.26% after last week's 5.53%, closing at HUF 3,528 on Friday, with weekly turnover of HUF 21.34 billion.
OTP performed best, with the bank's share price rising 0.58% to close at HUF 39,650 on Friday, with weekly turnover of HUF 59.4 billion.
Richter's share price weakened by 0.85%, closing at HUF 11,600 on Friday, with weekly turnover exceeding HUF 10.51 billion.
Magyar Telekom closed with a 0.2% loss, ending trading at HUF 1,974, with weekly turnover amounting to HUF 2.34 billion.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed at 9,985.12 points on Friday, down 91.31 points, or 0.91%, from the previous week.