BUX makes up for previous dayʼs loss

The Budapest parquet amply made up for a light dip in very last trades Wednesday, caused by renewed Greek worries, continuing a rally started Wednesday morning.

Investors digested with appetite a rack of mouth-watering data out Wednesday and Thursday which outweighed political worries, raised by the governmentʼs handling a series of local fund managersʼ failures, and for continuing deflation and lower company dividends that sent shares diving earlier in the week.

Good news included Hungaryʼs March manufacturing expansion at a monthly pace not seen since 2007, an upwardly revised January trade surplus on strong exports, a public deficit last year well under the official target with public debt narrowing, and the central bankʼs balance of payment report that showed Hungaryʼs external financing capacity rose to an all-time high of 8.3% to GDP last year on both goods and services exports, improved terms of trade, more incoming EU funds, dropping external debt ratios, and falling yields.

Following these macro readings, expectations for larger-than-thought economic growth and larger-than-thought base rate cuts by the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) fueled the market rise.

An agreement on cheaper Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine also helped MOL and the following surge of the Russian rouble against the Hungarian forint benefited Richter, too.

OTP lost 0.02 % to HUF 5,300 on turnover of HUF 4.68 bln from a HUF 12.58 bln session total, a third above the daily average this year. MOL surged 4.73% to HUF 12,740, a more than nine-month high, on turnover of HUF 6.30 bln.  Magyar Telekom gained 0.24% to HUF 413 on turnover of HUF 752 mln. Richter advanced 2.61% to HUF 3,899 on turnover of HUF 753 mln. The bourseʼs mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.14% higher at 1,536.41.

Over the holiday-shortened week, the BUX added 0.19% to a rise of 3.84% in the previous week. OTP was flat over the week after gathering 3.92% last week. MOL rose 2.49% after increasing 6.19% the previous week. Magyar Telekom fell 0.96% after soaring 8.03% last week. Richter dropped 1.34% after improving 0.05% over the previous week. The BUMIX garnered 0.34% after a plus of 0.59% last week.

Elsewhere in the region, WIG 20 in Warsaw was up 0.33%, while Pragueʼs PX racked up 0.51%. Western Europeʼs major indices were mixed ahead of their close Thursday, FTSE-100 in London up 0.32%, DAX30 in Frankfurt down 0.17%, and CAC40 in Paris up 0.23%.