BUX stabilizes, but still down on the day

The Budapest parquet stabilized after Thursday's rout as analysts said economic damage from the Swiss franc's surge could be smaller than initially feared, but it still fell for the six consecutive day in subdued week-end trade.

Citi said in a note that the Swiss central bank's move to scrap its exchange rate cap to the euro would further reduce Europe's anemic inflation, which "will end up exporting further disinflation to emerging market economies."

Fresh local data on sharply slowing construction output growth in November pointed to a bursting of the bubble fueled by EU financed public works.

Budapest blue-chips heavily exposed to Russian markets were mixed after the Russian rouble eased further against the Hungarian forint, and Moody's forecast a 5.5% GDP drop for Russia this year.

The main drag was MOL while Brent oil rose but was unable to scale USD 50.

Following a drop to the lowest since August, 2012, on Thursday, OTP gained after it said it had secured itself against the franc impact already at an earlier time. A measure announced on Friday -- OTP lowers its interest rates on franc loans in Romania for three months -- suggested confidence at the bank while the net franc-based loan stock of OTP's Romanian subsidiary is small, worth HUF 133md only.

OTP won 1.72% to HUF 3,539 on turnover of HUF 3.87 bln from a HUF 6.03 bln session total, more than a fifth short of the daily average last year.

MOL fell 2.71% to HUF 10,600 the lowest since April, 2009, on turnover of HUF 1.25 bln.

Magyar Telekom sank 1.21% to HUF 326 on turnover of HUF 435 mln.

Richter advanced 0.44% to HUF 3,410 on turnover of HUF 371 mln.

The bourse's mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.10% lower at 1,402.90.

Over the week, the BUX lost 3.60% after falling 2.47% in the previous week.

OTP was down 3.04% after losing 4.22% last week.

MOL dropped 8.86% after rising 0.74% the previous week.

Magyar Telekom dropped 2.10% after falling 1.48% last week.

Richter gained 1.49% after dropping 4.95% over the previous week.

Elsewhere in the region, the WIG 20 in Warsaw was down 0.57%, while Prague's PX rose 0.37%. Western Europe's major indices were all up ahead of their close Friday, FTSE-100 in London 0.83%, DAX30 in Frankfurt 1.70%, and CAC40 in Paris 1.47%.