Locally, parliament adopted the laws on “fair banking” and on forintising household forex debts early next year. Although both are detrimental to banks’ profits, the legislation has now removed the last heavy bits of uncertainties from the system after the relevant bills had been amended almost daily in the past weeks.
The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) decided on Tuesday to hold its record low base rate for the fourth consecutive month with no change of wording in its medium term guidance, but analysts are increasingly penciling in the option of a cut in the first half of next year
The November forecast of the OECD, published on Tuesday, still saw Hungary’s GDP growth on a slowing path in the next two years, and its forecasts are more pessimistic than those of the Hungarian government and the European Commission, but it at least improved the numbers compared to its May forecast, while it decreased forecasts for both the world economy and for the euro zone.
OECD listed debtors relief, less public investments due to fewer EU funds, and diminishing base effects from past car industry developments as risks to Hungary’s growth in the coming years, but none of these surprised investors.
MOL was specially in favour after it proposed to pay a hefty dividend from its Croatian subsidiary INA. The payment would wipe out INA’s retained profits almost entirely, which might help MOL to agree with any prospective buyer of its INA stake, analysts say.
Richter also gained on buying its own shares, traders said.
OTP won 0.63% to HUF 3,995 on turnover of HUF 2.50 bln from a HUF 6.22 bln session total, nearly four-fifths of the daily average this year.
MOL soared 2.44% to HUF 12,380 on turnover of HUF 1.20 bln.
Magyar Telekom lost 0.59% to HUF 338 on turnover of HUF 207 mln.
Richter advanced 2.47% to HUF 3,861 on turnover of HUF 2.23 bln.
The bourse’s mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.06% higher at 1,471.07.
Elsewhere in the region, Warsaw’s WIG20 was down 0.07%, while Prague’s PX rose 0.69%. Western Europe’s major indices were mixed ahead of their close Tuesday, FTSE-100 in London down 0.10%, DAX30 in Frankfurt up 0.72%, and CAC40 in Paris up 0.12%.
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