BUX Index Rose on Falling Turnover This Week

The Budapest Stock Exchange's (BSE) share index, the BUX, closed the three-day trading week at 43,935.56 points, up 2.40% or 1,030.01 points compared to last Friday, the state news agency MTI reported this Sunday morning.

The turnover was HUF 110.943 billion, compared to HUF 190.623 billion the previous week. Leading stocks rose, with the exception of the oil company Mol.

In its weekly analysis sent to MTI, Equilor Investment Plc. highlighted that the BUX index failed to break the 45,000-point level in any meaningful way, the beginning of the week started well, rising above 45,000 points on Thursday, and then the index was rather "beaten up" on Friday, as there is no sign of a serious intention to settle the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Equilor's analyst Bence Józsa pointed out that the National Bank (MNB) did not change the benchmark rate in the one-week deposit tender, as expected, and it remained at 5.85%.

He added that OTP is facing a significant target price cut. JPMorgan lowered its 12-month target price on OTP Bank from HUF 27,775 to HUF 13,250, downgrading the recommendation from overweight to neutral weighting. The Hungarian bank announced this week that it would consider all options regarding Russia, including leaving the country.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares rose 7.56% to 3,928.07 points.