Strong Week on the Budapest Stock Exchange

The Budapest Stock Exchange’s stock index, the BUX closed the week at a historic high, above 150,552 points. The domestic market outperformed international stock exchanges, driven primarily by significant gains in Mol and Richter, while total weekly trading volume declined slightly.

Trading in recent days was greatly supported by the fact that several brokerage firms raised their target prices for leading Hungarian stocks. In the case of Mol, UBS raised its target to HUF 5,500, while Citi raised its target to HUF 5,300.

Goldman Sachs continues to recommend buying OTP, raising its 12-month target price to HUF 52,900, while MBH Bank set a new but unchanged neutral target price of HUF 2,850 for Magyar Telekom. The domestic stock market performed exceptionally well this week, repeatedly outperforming Western European markets. Although weekly total trading volume fell from HUF 108.5 billion to HUF 95 billion, sentiment remained positive.

The relatively calm trading was disrupted on Thursday by a sharp, nearly 62% rally in Rába shares, which sent the price jumping to HUF 3,680. The momentum lasted until Friday morning – when trades were even made at HUF 4,600 – but the stock ultimately closed the final day of the week with a slight 3.5% correction. Also noteworthy was 4iG’s gain on Thursday, while some profit-taking took place in the blue-chip market.

Leading stocks had a mixed week. Mol performed the best, closing at HUF 4,960 after a 6.67% rise, with trading volume exceeding HUF 20 billion. Richter followed closely behind, gaining 5.52% to reach exactly HUF 13,000, with weekly trading volume of HUF 22.7 billion. In contrast, stocks in the banking and telecommunications sectors weakened. OTP’s share price slipped 1.79% to HUF 46,050 despite an outstanding trading volume of HUF 37.5 billion, while Magyar Telekom ended the day down 2.45% at HUF 2,630.

Meanwhile, the BUMIX index, which tracks small- and mid-cap stocks, closed at 9,682 points, up a minimal 0.33%.