Budapest Stock Exchange Index at Another Historic High

The Budapest Stock Exchange's share index, the BUX, closed at 53,955.85 points on Friday, up 111.26 points or 0.21%, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reports.

Turnover on the stock market was HUF 7.7 billion, with leading shares performing mixed compared to the previous day's close.

Zsolt Bosnyák, senior analyst at Equilor Befektetési Zrt. told MTI that the BUX index rose to a new all-time high thanks to the strength of Mol and Richter.

He added that among the small caps, geothermal energy company PannErgy stood out, as its share price rose by 14.61% on HUF 794 million. According to the analyst, this can be explained by the fact that OTP has set a higher target price for PannErgy than its current trading price.

Zsolt Bosnyák said that the BUX index had slightly outperformed compared to international markets, where direction finding was the dominant feature. The direction finding in international markets is the result of continued problems in the Chinese real estate market, with Evergrande's trading still suspended and another property developer, Fantasia Holdings, seeing its bonds fall 50% for not paying a coupon on its bonds on Monday. At the same time, international markets have taken the fact that the US has raised its debt ceiling as a positive sign that it is no longer at risk of bankruptcy in the short term.