BUX Fell This Week Amid Rising Trading Volume

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) stock index declined moderately this week; on Friday, the BUX closed at 121,718.1 points, down 0.32%, or 389.2 points, from the previous week.

Weekly trading volume was HUF 110.6 billion, up from HUF 109.9 billion the previous week, with leading stocks posting mixed results.

Equilor Investment Ltd. noted in its weekly summary sent to MTI: the strategic agreement between Richter and Japan’s Fuji Pharma aims at joint research and development and expansion into regional markets. The Hungarian pharmaceutical manufacturer received a marketing authorization from the European Commission for one of its hormone replacement therapy products.

Target price hikes were issued for Mol shares this week: Citi raised its 12-month target price from HUF 3,200 to HUF 3,900, and UBS raised it from HUF 4,250 to HUF 4,500; both banks’ recommendations remain neutral. In other Mol-related news, the company has received approval from U.S. authorities to continue negotiations regarding the acquisition of the Serbian oil company NIS.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), having accepted Mol’s application, extended the deadline for finalizing the acquisition of NIS (56.15%) until May 22, thereby paving the way for the finalization of the purchase agreement signed in January.

Among the week’s highlights, it was noted that MBH’s adjusted net income fell by 10.9% last year to HUF 204 billion, return on equity fell to 17.5% from 20.7%, while earnings per share came in at HUF 512 after HUF 618 in 2024.

Pannergy is proposing a dividend payment of HUF 138 per share (a 7% dividend yield), while Graphisoft shareholders can expect a dividend of EUR 1.83 per share.

Opus Global Plc. is launching a share buyback transaction worth at least HUF 1 billion through fixed-price transactions, the price paid per share may not exceed the closing price on April 9 plus 20%, nor may it exceed the equity per share calculated based on the 2024 consolidated annual report, which is HUF 710.

This week, OTP was the only blue-chip stock to close in the red, with its share price falling 0.7% to HUF 35,700 and weekly trading volume reaching nearly HUF 72.4 billion.

Magyar Telekom performed the best, with the stock rising 2.99% to close at HUF 2,070, with a weekly turnover of HUF 6.5 billion.

Mol rose 1.99% to HUF 3,994 this week, with a turnover of nearly HUF 11.5 billion.

Richter rose 1.53% compared to last Friday, with its share price falling to HUF 11,920 and weekly turnover exceeding HUF 12.3 billion. Organic growth was supplemented by acquisitions such as the consolidation of Sberbank’s customers and the acquisitions of Fundamenta, Duna Bank, and Otthon Centrum.

The BUMIX index of small- and mid-cap stocks saw a major downturn, losing 511.14 points, or 5.54%, compared to a week before, closing at 8,719.77 points on Friday.