BUX rises for a fifth day

This weekʼs relief rally and bargain-hunting across commodities and emerging markets got a shot in the arm on Friday, pulling the Budapest bourse up for a fifth consecutive day in rarely-seen large volumes.

World stocks were on course for their biggest weekly rise in four years in the morning, slowing a little in the afternoon, though, in week-end profit taking, after minutes of the Fedʼs last policy meeting, published late on Thursday, suggested the US central bank would probably not move until some time next year instead of raising its base rate by the end of this year as expected earlier.

The Budapest bourse, an unlikely member of the world champions club in terms of year-to-date rises, benefited from the renewed global risk hunt, all the more as in Europe hopes are also high for the European Central Bank to widen its quantitative easing rather sooner than later, and as some analysts expect Hungaryʼs central bank to stretch the sell-by date of its record low base rate into 2017, that is for a longer period of time than previously thought, with even an intervening rate cut not excluded.

Winner of the day, OTP Bank, after scaling strong resistance at HUF 5,500 technical barrier, seemed unstoppable, while traditional safe haven of more difficult times, pharma company Richter, was less in vogue.

Just like all over the world, investors in Budapest, too, brushed aside the dayʼs mixed economic data.

Preliminary Hungarian foreign trade numbers from August showed year-to-date surplus rose to a historic high, but the surplus in August itself fell for a second month to the third lowest this year, as exports significantly fell for a second month in monthly comparisons. Annual export growth accelerated a tad in August from July, but the pace remained well under the year-to-date average.

OTP won 3.83% to HUF 5,700 on turnover of HUF 8.59 bln from a preliminary HUF 11.66 bln session total, almost a third above the daily average this year.

MOL gained 1.14% to HUF 13,340 on turnover of HUF 1.60 bln.

Magyar Telekom ended flat at HUF 397 on turnover of HUF 96m.

Richter also ended flat at HUF 4,571 on turnover of HUF 1.32 bln.

The bourseʼs mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.26% lower at 1,613.29.

Over the week, the BUX was up 5.52% after easing 0.18% in the previous week.

OTP soared 7.79% after sinking 1.53% last week.

MOL surged 7.06% after gaining 1.05% in the preceding week.

Magyar Telekom rose 2.32% after pocketing 0.52% last week.

Richter improved 3.42% after declining 0.26% over the previous week.

The BUMIX won 0.30% after recovering 0.44% over last week.

Elsewhere in the region, WIG 20 in Warsaw was up 0.77%, while Pragueʼs PX garnered 1.09%.

Western Europeʼs major indices were all up ahead of their close on Friday, FTSE100 in London 0.56%, DAX30 in Frankfurt 0.94%, and CAC40 in Paris 0.42%.