BUX Index Rose on Rising Turnover This Week

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) share index rose in a four-day trading week, with the BUX closing at 46,330.72 points on Friday, up 3.37% to 1,508.51 points from a week earlier.

The weekly turnover of the stock market for the four trading days was HUF 46.02 billion, up from HUF 37.98 billion the previous week, with leading stocks gaining.

Equilor Investment Plc. said that the Hungarian stock market performed very well over the week as a whole, despite the low turnover of HUF 5.1 billion on Friday, with the BUX index rising by only 0.02%.

On Thursday, international sentiment was the main driver of stock prices. After a choppy morning trading session, the Hungarian stock market followed the European markets after the European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate decision. The 25-basis-point rate hike was in line with expectations, but after the meeting, President Christine Lagarde's stern tone was met with a fall in the markets. There was no corporate news on Hungary's leading shares, with prices correcting after rising in recent days.  The BUX closed down 195.74 points, or 0.42%, at 46,322.50 points on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the turnover of the stock market was HUF 17.2 billion, indicating that foreign buyers are increasingly buying Hungarian shares. The BUX closed at 46 518.24 points on Wednesday, up 2.26% at 1028.23 points.

Tuesday also saw above-average turnover on the BSE of 11.8 billion forints, with OTP accounting for the bulk of this. The BUX closed up 1.49% at 45 490.01 points, or 667.80 points. The rise of the BUX was clearly driven by a 3.54% gain in OTP. The Hungarian bank's share price was positively impacted by an analysis published by Morgan Stanley on Tuesday, which said that the outlook for OTP shares is very good, with country risk decreasing, thus improving the bank's operating environment.

OTP was the biggest gainer among the leading stocks this week, up 6.26%, closing at HUF 10,945 on Friday, with weekly turnover of HUF 33.29 billion.

Richter rose by 2.39%. The stock closed Friday at HUF 8,365, with a weekly turnover of HUF 5.57 billion.

Mol rose 1.39%, with a weekly turnover of HUF 5.73 billion, closing Friday at HUF 2,780.

Magyar Telekom gained 0.94% this week, closing Friday at HUF 430, with a weekly turnover of HUF 800.82 million.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed the week at 3,417.37 points, up 63.14 points or 1.88% on the previous week.