BUX ekes out gain on late rally

The Budapest Stock Exchange’s BUX index closed Thursday trade up 0.13% to 16,216.33 as an alleviation of fears with regard to debt crises in Greece and Italy propelled the BSE blue-chip into positive territory just before closing bell.

The BUX gained 20.71 points on a composite exchange turnover of HUF 23.21bn after Greece selected European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos to serve as the country’s new prime minister and Italian ten-year bonds yields fell below 7%, widely regarded as the limit that an economy can bear without defaulting. The BUX fluctuated in a 4.15% range between an intra-session low of 15,849.86 at 9:15 a.m. and an intra-session high of 16,508.42 at 3:00 p.m.

BSE blue-chips stood as follows at Thursday’s closing bell:

Oil and gas company MOL gained 2.58% to HUF 16,100 on a turnover of HUF 2.75bn;

Magyar Telekom advanced 2.00% to HUF 510 on a turnover of HUF 936m;

Drug company Richter gained 0.56% to HUF 35,800 on a turnover of HUF 1.59bn;

OTP lost 4.01% to HUF 2,870 on an immense, exchange-high turnover of HUF 17.37bn.

The BSE Big Four generated 97.6% of the exchange’s composite Thursday turnover.