BUDAPEST: The Budapest Stock Exchangeʼs main BUX index finished down 1.52% at 21,879.14 Friday after rising 1.14% Thursday. It is up 31.53% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year.
The Budapest parquet was on a descending leg of the last few daysʼ roller coaster due to week-end profit taking, headwinds from European markets following the latest, unpromising, twists in the Greek debt talks soap, and a sudden flare-up of fighting in the Eastern part of neighbouring Ukraine.
Locally, latest industrial figures from April were not supportive either, showing a small monthly fall after six months of growth, and a sharp slow-down of annual expansion with new orders and orders stocks growth also on the decline. The bankʼs announcement late afternoon that it agreed to buy a small unit of an Italian bank in Serbia was neglected by investors. OTP lost 2.54% to HUF 5,440 on turnover of HUF 3.01 bln from a HUF 4.96 bln session total, less than half the daily average this year.
MOL dipped 1.12% to HUF 14,525 on turnover of HUF 841m. Magyar Telekom slid 0.24% to HUF 413 on turnover of HUF 266m. Richter retreated 1.32% to HUF 4,352 on turnover of HUF 816m. The bourseʼs mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.55% lower at 1,581.66.Over the week, the BUX was down 2.01% after falling 0.23% the previous week.
OTP recovered 1.02% after tumbling 5.53% last week.MOL dipped 2.91% after gaining 1.66% the previous week. Magyar Telekom was off 3.50% after rising 2.88% last week. Richter dropped 4.35% after a loss of 1.09% over the previous week.The BUMIX dropped 1.63% after a win of 0.50% over last week. Elsewhere in the region, WIG 20 in Warsaw was down 0.89%, while Pragueʼs PX dove 1.71%. Western Europeʼs major indices were all down ahead of their close Friday, FTSE100 in London 0.82%, DAX30 in Frankfurt 1.39%, and CAC40 in Paris 1.58%.
