BUX further down on multiple worries
The Budapest Stock Exchange's main BUX index finished down 0.39% at 16,158.77 Monday, after falling 1.33% Friday. It is down 2.86% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. The Budapest parquet fell for a second day after lukewarm euro area data out last week soured mood, but expectations for a full-fledged ECB quantitative easing any time soon waned further on Monday.
Oil's renewed price plunge increased worries for the Russian economy to which most Hungarian blue-chips are seriously exposed. MOL was subdued also by oil's renewed price plunge. However, exceptionally, Richter got some tailwind from health stocks improving across Europe.
Market mood also reflected worries for what investors perceive as anti-free-market policies of the government, after Tesco announced the closure of 13 of its supermarkets in Hungary with at least 500 redundancies in the framework of its global restructuring, and explained the local move by recent government measures, which include higher taxes for large, mostly foreign, retail chains and a Sunday close-down of shops from March.
An announcement by the foreign minister of Hungary of three prospective, but yet unnamed, new US investments in Hungary to be worth $15.5 mln, creating more than 500 jobs, failed to enthuse investors.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs forecast deflation to deepen in Hungary's with consumer price decline likely accelerating to 0.8% in December from 0.7% in November.
OTP lost 0.79% to HUF 3,621 on turnover of HUF 2.55 bln from a HUF 3.86 bln session total, about half the daily average last year.
MOL fell 1.12% to HUF 11,500 on turnover of HUF 592 mln.
Magyar Telekom ended flat at HUF 333 on turnover of HUF 46 mln.
Richter advanced 0.89% to HUF 3,390 on turnover of HUF 601 mln.
The bourse's mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.08% lower at 1,427.52.
Elsewhere in the region, the WIG 20 in Warsaw was down 0.37%, while Prague's PX raked up 0.01%. Western Europe's major indices were mixed ahead of their close Monday, FTSE-100 in London down 0.07%, DAX30 in Frankfurt up 1.45%, and CAC40 in Paris up 1.23%.
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