BUDAPEST: The Stock Exchange of Budapest stated that the main BUX index finished down 1.12% at 19,964.68, after rising 0.42% to the highest since August 3, 2011. It is up 20.02% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year.
Underpinned by the Hungarian central bankʼs base rate cut earlier in the week, outperforming most emerging markets as it ended still up on the week, the Hungarian parquet also withdrew from Thursdayʼs highs as a strong dollar lured investors away and worries about stability in the Middle East depressed investor sentiment.
Money continued to flow out of emerging market-themed funds, according to weekly figures from fund flow trackers EPFR Global.Locally, the fallback was led by OTP after media reports that its bid failed for Sloveniaʼs second-largest bank, Nova KBM.
Also on Friday Hungarian fund managers Concorde downgraded OTP to underweight from overweight as it slashed its annual profit forecast for Hungaryʼs largest bank to HUF 88 bln from HUF 108 bln previously due to expected further losses in Ukraine, and saw larger than expected contributions by OTP to client insurance funds in the wake of the recent brokerage failures in Hungary. It left OTPʼs year-end target price unchanged at HUF 4,677.
