BUX further down on ruble
The Budapest Stock Exchange's main BUX index finished down 0.11% at 16,140.26 Tuesday, after falling 0.39% Monday. It is down 2.97% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. The Budapest parquet fell for a third day, although a continuing rally of Western markets slowed the slide in the afternoon.
Analysts mentioned the incessant fall of the Russian ruble as the main cause of BUX losses in recent days. While the ruble fell more than 4% against major currencies on Tuesday to a one-month low, the forint appreciated against the ruble almost as much as that, dimming further the result prospects of Hungarian blue-chips heavily exposed to the Russian economy.
Hungary's foreign minister said on Tuesday that Hungary wanted Russia to store more gas in Hungary after Russia cancelled the South Stream project last year, and expected assistance and money from the European Union in that process.
Meanwhile, as opposed to expectations of a number of Western forecasters, Hungarian market participants apparently do not pencil in a rate cut by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) in order to stave off further deflation. December inflation data is due on Wednesday.
MOL offered on Tuesday to buy all the outstanding ordinary shares in Hungarian petrochemicals producer TVK for HUF 4,984 each. MOL already owns 94.9% of TVK. TVK, suspended on Tuesday, closed at HUF 5,086 on Monday after ending last year at HUF 4,745.
OTP corrected up 0.06% to HUF 3,619 on turnover of HUF 2.42 bln from a HUF 4.50 bln session total, less than two-thirds of the daily average last year.
MOL fell 0.70% to HUF 11,420 on turnover of HUF 1.11 bln.
Magyar Telekom rose 1.80% to HUF 339 on turnover of HUF 375 mln.
Richter retreated 0.77% to HUF 3,364 on turnover of HUF 465 mln.
The bourse's mid-cap BUMIX went out 1.02% higher at 1,442.05.
Elsewhere in the region, the WIG 20 in Warsaw was up 1.57%, while Prague's PX soared 1.77%. Western Europe's major indices were all up ahead of their close Tuesday, FTSE-100 in London 0.56%, DAX30 in Frankfurt 1.70%, and CAC40 in Paris 1.56%.
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