BUX Declined This Week on Falling Turnover

The Budapest Stock Exchange's (BSE) share index fell this week, with the BUX closing at 40,910.81 points on Friday, down 1,030.46 points, 2.46% lower than the previous week, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reported Sunday morning along with a brief analysis.

The weekly turnover on the stock market was HUF 33.26 billion, down from HUF 58.03 billion the previous week, with the leading shares, with the exception of OTP, weakening.

International stock market sentiment was negative on Monday after Gazprom failed to start gas deliveries on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The Budapest stock market followed the negative international sentiment. On Monday, the US stock exchange had a trading holiday, which explains why BSE turnover was well below average.

The Hungarian market performed well on Wednesday, with OTP leading the rise. The share price was helped by better-than-expected industrial production data and the fact that the bank's acquisition in Slovenia could be completed soon, which could make OTP the market leader in that country.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank's interest rate hike dampened equity market sentiment, especially with the prospect of further hikes. However, the BSE did not perform well on Thursday, with trading already weak in the morning.

The Hungarian market was underperforming on Friday and turnover was very low, as was turnover for the week as a whole. Mol's share price was adversely affected by Croatia's plans to ban the export of locally produced natural gas.

OTP's share price rose by 1.55% this week on HUF 18.5 billion of turnover, with the paper ending trading at HUF 8,636 on Friday.

The price of Mol fell by 3.78%, the share closed at HUF 2,650 on Friday, with a turnover of more than HUF 5.25 billion.

Magyar Telekom weakened by 5.83% to HUF 315.0 this week, with a turnover of HUF 348 million.

Richter fell 4.87%, closing the last trading day of the week at HUF 7,720, with a weekly turnover of over HUF 7.8 billion.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed the week at 3792.35 points, down 69.82 points or 1.81% on the previous week.