BUX Index Rose on Rising Turnover This Week

The stock index of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) increased on an upward trend in the just three trading days of the week, closing at 42,629.68 points on Friday, 1,575.97 points – or 3.84% – higher than a week earlier, the state news agency MTI reported Sunday morning along with a brief analysis.

The weekly turnover of the stock market was HUF 30.63 billion in the three trading days, compared to HUF 26.33 billion the previous week, with the leading stocks, except for the stagnant Magyar Telekom, gaining.

In its weekly summary sent to MTI, Equilor Investment Plc. pointed out that the BUX closed the week with a significant rise above the 42,000-point level, significantly outperforming both regionally and internationally.

Behind the rise is the domestic fast reporting season, which started on Friday and was opened by Mol. The domestic oil company significantly exceeded analysts' expectations, and following a rise of around 4% on Thursday, the share price strengthened again on Friday. The oil company's annualized results were 120% over that of last year and 5% over the analysts' expectations, the summary said.

It was recalled that Moody's gave a negative outlook to the European banking sector this week. The rating agency announced Wednesday that it was downgrading its outlook on the banking sector in six European countries to negative from stable. In Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovakia, inflation and rising interest rates are hurting the creditworthiness of businesses and households, which could increase the share of non-performing loans.

Mol strengthened the most this week by 6.04% on HUF 6.24 billion of turnover, with the paper ending trading at HUF 2,634 on Friday.

Magyar Telekom's share price was unchanged this week, remaining at HUF 297, with a turnover of over HUF 158 million.

OTP's share price rose by 5.76% this week, with a turnover of HUF 18.5 billion, closing Friday at HUF 9,550.

Richter's share price rose by 0.18% on a turnover of HUF 5 billion, ending Friday's trading at HUF 8,195.

The BUMIX index of small and medium-sized shares closed the week at 3,611.19 points, up 39.70 points, or 1.11%, on the previous week.