BUX Index Rose This Week Amid Falling Turnover

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) share index, the BUX, closed Friday at 45,715.33 points, up 2.74% or 1,220.23 points compared to last week, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reported this Sunday morning along with a brief analysis of the week.

Share turnover fell from HUF 53.825 billion the previous week to HUF 51.203 billion, with leading shares gaining since last week's close. 

According to a summary by Equilor Investment Plc., corporate news had a significant impact on the share prices of several large issuers this week. On Monday, Mol announced that it had discovered significant quantities of oil near Vecsés, but that the Barátság [‘Friendship’] oil pipeline had temporarily halted deliveries. The outlook for OTP and Richter improved as both received target price increases this week. The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) did not change interest rates this week, but the government announced it would intervene in deposit rates, they said.

The BSE started the week well despite the unfavorable international sentiment, and the BUX continued to rise on Tuesday thanks to a stronger performance from Mol. The momentum was temporarily broken on Wednesday as it emerged that EU funds were still not forthcoming, but by Thursday's close the Hungarian stock market was able to recover and closed higher again. On the last day of the week, the Hungarian stock market again outperformed the European average.

Among the leading stocks, Richter gained the most, 3.94%. Its share price reached HUF 8,315 and its total turnover reached HUF 6.15 billion.

The share price of Mol also rose significantly, by 3.28%, to HUF 2,768, with a turnover of HUF 6.14 billion.

Magyar Telekom rose 2.81%, with its share price at HUF 329.5 and weekly turnover at HUF 452 million on Friday.

OTP strengthened by 2.08%, closing Friday at HUF 10,800, with weekly turnover exceeding HUF 36.725 billion.   

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares fell 0.04% to 1.63 points, with a total turnover of HUF 1.722 billion.