BSE: Falling Turnover and Lower Index This Week

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) share index (BUX) fell in declining turnover this week, with the index 50 closing at 904.91 points on Friday, 56.34 points, 0.11% lower than a week ago, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reports.

Turnover on the stock market was HUF 72.9 billion, down from HUF 94.6 billion last week, with all leading shares except OTP falling.

In a summary sent to MTI, Equilor Investment analysts pointed out that the domestic stock market index continued to fluctuate this week, in parallel with the "swings" in international investor sentiment, which were mainly fueled by speculation and news related to the omicron variant.

They stressed that the tightening of monetary conditions is continuing. The Governor of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB), György Matolcsy, spoke about this in parliament on Wednesday. He said that the tightening would continue until the MNB felt that inflation was close to the medium-term target. Thus, the tightening is expected to continue in 2022, including the cycle of interest rate hikes, Equilor said in its weekly summary.

It was pointed out that Mol's refinery margin fell significantly in November. Group-wide refining margins were just USD 2.8, down from USD 5.9, the last time they were this low was during the close in February. On the positive side, however, the petrochemical margin rose to EUR 605.8 per ton, reversing the previous downward trend, from EUR 540.3 in October, Equilor highlighted.