BUX turns red
The Budapest Stock Exchangeʼs main BUX index finished down 0.63% at 18,666.39 Friday after rising 0.54% Thursday. It is up 12.22% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. While leading eurozone indices besieged new records after week-end profit taking earlier in the day, the Budapest parquet fell from a near nine-month high on Thursday by close, although still up on the week.
OTP corrected further down after the bankʼs share gained 13% to a more than nine-month high in the first three sessions of this week on analysts upgrades since it has published better-than-expected Q4 results last Friday.
Some other blue-chips exposed to Russian and Ukrainian markets, including Richter, rose intraday as the Russian rouble continued to strengthen against the Hungarian forint on Friday, and Ukraine secured a bail-out from the IMF, to close also down.
Brentʼs slide pressured MOL.
Local mood was volatile after a second blow in as many days from the European Commission on projects close to the heart of Hungaryʼs government. On Friday, the EC confirmed Brussels had objections to Hungaryʼs plan to import fuel exclusively from Russia to the Paks (central Hungary) nuclear power plant after its expansion. Earlier, on Thursday, the European Union ordered Hungary to stop applying a special advertising tax, pending the results of an investigation into whether the levy illegally disadvantages big media companies. This also raised concerns that the government might invent some other taxes to fill a possible gap.
OTP lost 0.21% to HUF 4,700 on turnover of HUF 4.04 bln from a HUF 6.51 bln session total, a quarter short of the daily average this year.
MOL dropped 0.95% to HUF 11,965 on turnover of HUF 1.12 bln.
Magyar Telekom fell 2.56% to HUF 381 on turnover of HUF 656 mln.
Richter retreated 0.03% to HUF 3,859 on turnover of HUF 626 mln.
The bourseʼs mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.03% lower at 1,510.04.
Over the week, the BUX added 2.09% after a plus of 0.40% in the previous week.
OTP gathered 7.80% after rising 1.75% last week.
MOL dipped 0.29% after improving 0.08% the previous week.
Magyar Telekom sank 3.30% after climbing 2.87% last week.
Richter gained 0.49% after falling 2.29% over the previous week.
The BUMIX dropped 0.39% after rising 0.77% last week.
Elsewhere in the region, the WIG 20 in Warsaw was down 1.00%, while Pragueʼs PX increased 1.24%. Western Europeʼs major indices were mixed ahead of their close Friday, FTSE-100 in London down 0.46%, DAX30 in Frankfurt up 0.82%, and CAC40 in Paris up 0.36%.
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