BUX Index Rose on Falling Turnover This Week

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) stock index rose this week amid falling turnover, closing at 42,318.34 points on Friday, 1.19% higher than a week earlier, MTI reported this Sunday morning along with a brief analysis.

The weekly turnover of the stock market was HUF 34.13 billion, up from HUF 46.88 billion the previous week, with the leading stocks, with the exception of Richter, gaining.

In its weekly summary sent to MTI, Equilor Investment Plc. said that the uncertainties about the banking sector seen in previous weeks were easing and no important macroeconomic data had been released, giving the upper hand to more optimistic investors.

Among the macroeconomic events of the week, Equilor highlighted Tuesday's interest rate decision meeting, where the decision-makers confirmed the need to maintain the base rate at its current level on a sustained basis, while keeping monetary conditions on hold. In the quarterly Inflation Report, the annual average inflation forecast of 15-19.5% for this year was confirmed, while the growth outlook for 2023 was revised from 0.5-1.5% to 0.0-1.5%.

S&P's emerging market analysis painted a more pessimistic picture of the outlook for the Hungarian economy, indicating that the Hungarian economy could be targeted if risk aversion intensifies, due to the high current account deficit and lower foreign exchange reserves.

In corporate news, they highlighted the government's decision on Wednesday to impose a 2.8% special tax on net sales in 2022 on Mol in three instalments this year. At the same time, the mining tax payable by the company will be reduced and the calculation of the extra profit tax will be eased. The underlying Brent-Ural spread will be reduced by USD 7.5. According to Equilor's overall assessment, the tax adjustments will have a neutral impact on the oil company.

They also pointed out that OTP bought 160,000 of its own shares this week as part of its remuneration policy.

There was also an increase and a decrease in Richter's 12-month target price. HSBC is expecting a price of HUF 9,800 instead of HUF 8,600, the recommendation was downgraded from buy to hold, while RBC Capital raised its 12-month target price for the pharma stock by HUF 400 to HUF 12,800, with an overweight.

OTP gained 1.40% this week, closing at HUF 9,982 on Friday, with weekly turnover of HUF 34 billion.

Mol rose 3.64%, closing Friday at HUF 2,564, with a weekly turnover of HUF 6.53 billion.

Richter weakened by 1.88% this week, closing at HUF 7,325 on Friday, with a weekly turnover of over HUF 4.76 billion.   

Magyar Telekom's share price rose 4.57% this week, closing at HUF 400.5 on Friday, with a weekly turnover of HUF 881 million.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed the week at 3,473.67 points, down 10.15 points, or 0.29%, on the previous week.