Hungarian Stock Market: Historic Record in August

Although stock markets tend to be subdued in the summer months, the Budapest Stock Exchange had an outstanding month. The BSE's primary stock index, the BUX index, ended the month at 55,775 points, a historical record for the month, following a 4.5% increase, the financial portal portfolio.hu writes.

The strong form was also reflected in the turnover of the spot market, with a total of HUF 286.8 billion traded, which corresponds to a daily average of HUF 12.5 billion. The order of the most popular stocks remained unchanged, with OTP, Richter and Mol leading the way with HUF 166.7, 40.1 and 33.6 billion respectively, while the brokerage firms Erste, Wood & Company and Concorde topped the field.

International capital markets closed August on a subdued note, in line with expectations. US stock market indices, among others, were subdued, which also supports analysts' view that the month has been characterized by mainly quiet results since the 1950s. That said, artificial intelligence continues to be a dominant factor in overseas markets, with Nvidia, for example, reporting that if results remain this strong, it could further fuel the advance of technology companies.

In contrast to the global picture, the domestic equity market was buoyant in August, with the BUX index continuing its upward trend of previous months. The index broke several daily records – reaching its highest daily close of 57,228 points on August 24 – and ended August up 4.5% on July at 55,775 points, a historic record for monthly closes.

OTP's shares were also the most traded in August, with HUF 166.7 billion, followed by Richter and Mol, with the pharmaceutical company closing the month with HUF 40.1 billion and the oil company with HUF 33.6 billion. Among mid-caps, 4iG, Opus and Appeninn stood out, the former two with share price gains of 20.4% and 19.9%, the latter 26.8%.

Turnover on the spot market reached its highest level so far this year at 286.8 billion forints (HUF 573.6 billion doubled), which translates into HUF 12.5 billion per trading day.

There was no change in the competition among investment service providers in August compared to the previous month, with Erste again taking first place with HUF 153.9 billion. It was followed by Wood with HUF 129.1 billion and Concorde with HUF 106.6 billion.

In terms of market shares, Erste covered 26.8% of the market, Wood 22.5% and Concorde 18.6%. This means that the three largest players accounted for 67.9% of total turnover.