BUX slightly down in week-end profit taking

Telco

The Budapest Stock Exchange's main BUX index finished down 0.11% at 16,759.10 Friday after soaring 2.35% Thursday. It is up 0.75% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. The Budapest parquet snapped a five-day winning streak on Friday in week-end profit taking after the ECB announced its practically open-ended quantitative easing programme on Thursday.

Opposite to Western and some other emerging markets that continued surging, the BUX's rise slowed than it sank below the waterline as Hungary's economic growth this year is expected to be weaker than last year. Therefore, heavy flows of funds into emerging market assets in the wake of the ECB move target higher-yielding sovereign debt in Hungary, pushing yields to new all-time lows — Hungary's impeccable, multi-decade record of diligent repayment — but apparently shun volatile shares.

OTP faces another batch of court cases, this time on its forint-denominated loans, local media reported on Friday.

The weakening of the Hungarian currency, the forint, against the Russian rouble could have helped shares of Hungarian companies exposed to Russian markets, but the sudden strengthening of the forint in euro terms clouded prospects for much larger exports to the euro area.

OTP lost 0.94% to HUF 3,779 on turnover of HUF 3.87 bln from a HUF 5.84 bln session total, a quarter short of the daily average last year.

MOL gained 0.18% to HUF 11,210 on turnover of HUF 537 mln.

Magyar Telekom rose 1.75% to HUF 348 on turnover of HUF 297 mln

Richter retreated 0.26% to HUF 3,775 on turnover of HUF 954 mln.

The bourse's mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.85% higher at 1,436.45.

Over the week, the BUX rose 6.37% after losing 2.88% in the previous week.

OTP was up 6.33% after losing 2.63% last week.

MOL gained 4.57% after dropping 7,82% the previous week.

Magyar Telekom improved 6.42% after dipping 1.80% last week.

Richter gained 9.58% after rising 2.53% over the previous week.

The BUMIX gained 2.06% after falling 1.49% over the last week.

Elsewhere in the region, the WIG 20 in Warsaw was up 0.01%, while Prague's PX rose 0.09%. Western Europe's major indices were all up ahead of their close Friday, FTSE-100 in London 0.14%, DAX30 in Frankfurt 1.80%, and CAC40 in Paris 1.59%.

Hungary Account Deficit at EUR 561 mln in Q4 Debt

Hungary Account Deficit at EUR 561 mln in Q4

Moldovan Pensions to be Increased as of April 1 World

Moldovan Pensions to be Increased as of April 1

Schoenherr Names Miklós Klenanc as Head of Local M&A Practic... Appointments

Schoenherr Names Miklós Klenanc as Head of Local M&A Practic...

Hungarian Wine Marketing Agency to Host Summit Drinks

Hungarian Wine Marketing Agency to Host Summit

SUPPORT THE BUDAPEST BUSINESS JOURNAL

Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For 27 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.
Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.