The conclusion of the discussion was that the European Commission considers it important to establish an integrated nuclear security standard. They made a proposal to conduct a safety inspection of all operating nuclear power plants. The exact measures of the stress test and the content of the standards would be defined by a team of experts that would also analyze the Japanese situation. The participants of the meeting agreed to offer humanitarian and professional help to Japan.

Pál Kovács who represented the current Hungarian EU presidency confirmed that Hungary is ready to send an on-site monitoring group to the disaster-stricken area that would provide medical, public protection and radiation detection advisory service. The Hungarian presidency convened the Working Party on Atomic Questions of the Council for March 16.

Also, the Hungarian presidency convened the special session of the energy ministers’ council for March 21 where participants can overview the current international situation, examine their effects on the global energy markets and on the energy sector of the European Union.

Markets also shaken

The fear of a nuclear catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, damaged by the Friday earthquake, dragged down the stock markets of the world in the past two days. The Nikkei 225 dropped another 10.6% yesterday after the big fall on Monday to 8,605 points, a low last seen in 2009 April. The Japanese index has dropped more than 16% over the past two days. Such an abrupt exchange rate drop in Japan has not occurred since 1987.

Investors primarily tried to get rid of energy shares: shares of Peco, the company owning Fukushima power plant dropped 25%.

The panic on the Oriental stock markets spread to other continents too: the MSCI World Index measuring the performance of all the stock markets of the world dropped 2.3% yesterday. European stock markets dipped 2-5% and the American stock exchanges also started the day in the red.

Commodity market rates also fell. The per liter oil price, that has risen above $100 due to the crisis in the Arab world, was only $97.4 yesterday. Gold price fell below $1,400 after a month. Silver that has already become scarce during last week has virtually disappeared from the markets by now.

Budapest spared by the holiday

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) was closed in the past two days due to national holiday, therefore remained unaffected by the fears on the markets. Analysts expected that though that the BUX index would “catch up” and likewise sustain a drop.

However, it appears now, that even if the BSE does not remain completely unaffected by the trend on the world markets, it will not have a dramatic impact on the Hungarian stock exchange. This is especially likely since the trend changed on the world stock exchanges, which already started showing signs of recovery yesterday. The Japanese Nikkei closed last day’s trade with a 6% gain. Stock markets of the region also closed with increases and the American stock markets reflected optimism.

Gergely Gabler of Erste Investment commented that global blue-chip indices appear to be rebounding from losses sustained on fear that the Japanese catastrophe could impede the global economic recovery. He noted that the BSE may manage to avert the substantial declines that took place at global stock markets on Monday and Tuesday.

Zsolt Balasy of Concorde Securities also predicted that the Japanese calamity may not exercise a significant impact on the value of shares traded at the Budapest Stock Exchange, noting that the BUX’s major central and eastern European blue-chip peer indices such as Warsaw’s WIG and Prague’s PX-50 sustained composite losses of just 1% on Monday and Tuesday.

The Budapest Stock Exchange’s blue-chip BUX index opened Wednesday trade down 1.14pc at 21,986.89. OTP Bank was down 1.41% at HUF 5,400, drug company Richter was down 1.33% at HUF 37,000, oil and gas company MOL was down 0.95% at HUF 22,405, Magyar Telekom was down 0.70% at HUF 566.