BUX Index Fell in Rising Turnover This Week

The stock index of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) fell this week, with the BUX closing at 45,769.16 points on Friday, down 8.89% on a week ago, or 4,468.04 points, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reported this Sunday morning.

Turnover on the stock market was HUF 176.57 billion, down from HUF 66.5 billion last week, with leading shares weakening.

In a summary sent to MTI, Equilor Investment Plc. pointed out that the military escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has put significant pressure on global capital markets, including the BSE, which saw the BUX index fall almost 10% on Thursday.

The big fall was followed by some positive correction on Friday, with the BUX closing the day up 6.19% at 45,769.16 points. The failure to impose the most severe European sanctions, which had been introduced earlier, also helped OTP, which had previously led the fall, the most in the correction.

Among the week's events, Equilor also highlighted the return of a 4.4% stake in Mol treasury shares by management to ING. A good number of the shares previously borrowed from the banks have thus been reacquired, bringing the current treasury stock to 6.4%.

Magyar Telekom reported revenue and profit above its own expectations, but below analysts' forecasts. Based on these results, the Board of Directors has developed a new shareholder remuneration policy, which will be applied to last year's results.

In a major milestone for Richter, it was announced on Tuesday that Abbvie, which markets its drugs in the US, has submitted an application to expand the use of Vraylar for patients with major depression. If the application is approved, it could significantly increase Richter's royalty income, but this is not expected before the end of the year.

Magyar Telekom's share price fell the least this week, by 1.85%, ending Friday's trading at HUF 425 forints, with a weekly turnover of HUF 1.8 billion.