BUX Index Up on Rising Turnover This Week

The Budapest Stock Exchange's (BSE) share index, the BUX, ended the week at 47,573.35 points, up 2.12% to 985.96 points compared to last Friday's close, MTI reported this morning along with a brief analysis of the week’s trading.

Turnover on the stock market rose from HUF 32.078 billion last week to HUF 37.376 billion, with leading shares performing mixed.

The BUX started the week with a slight decline, but western stock markets closed with a much bigger fall on Monday. The subdued trading was due to buyers holding out for the Hungarian National Bank's interest rate decision meeting on Tuesday, but there was no turnaround afterwards on news that negatively affected issuers. Reports suggest that OTP Bank may sell its Romanian subsidiary and a Mol unit has been attacked in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Richter has found another sales opportunity in Brazil.

On Wednesday, the BSE closed in the red again, but Western stock markets were even worse off as developments on the US debt ceiling threatened US bankruptcy. International sentiment did not improve significantly on Thursday, but the BUX was already up. According to a summary by Equilor Befektetési Plc., the BSE gained momentum, with the BUX crossing 47,000 points, with only Magyar Telekom threatened with weakness. OTP and Mol could break through, and Richter has broken through an important resistance. The momentum continued on Friday, helped by a more positive international sentiment on the last trading day of the week.

Richter was the biggest gainer this week, rising 3.77% to 305 forints. Its closing price was HUF 8,400 and its total turnover was HUF 8.167 billion.

Mol ended the week at HUF 2,866, up 3.02% or HUF 84, with a turnover of HUF 6.043 billion.

OTP shares fell 1.46%, by HUF 165 to HUF 11,135, with a weekly turnover of over HUF 19.912 billion.

Magyar Telekom weakened by 1.88% to HUF 8, ending the trading session at HUF 418 and with a turnover of around HUF 2.212 billion.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed up 0.24% at 3,355.70 points, up 7.98 points.