BUDAPEST: The Budapest Stock Exchangeʼs main BUX index finished up 0.88% at 22,393.01 Friday, after losing 0.88% Thursday. It is up 34.62% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. Snapping a four-day losing streak, the Budapest parquet belatedly followed euro zone peers up, only paring gains in the afternoon when the latter turned around and fell on dismal US industrial and consumer sentiment data.
New-found calm in sovereign bond markets with falling yields also helped after several weeks of turmoil ratcheted yields up in fear that the ECB might cut short its QE. But first-quarter euro zone GDP data out Wednesday, termed “good, but not too good” by analysts, helped dispel anxiety.
Winner of the day was MOL on announcing that it will widen ranges at its filling-station shops to raise revenue after legislation mandated supermarkets to close on Sundays. Despite posting steeply falling net income in the first quarter, Hungary’s largest bank by assets, OTP, also rose as results confounded market consensus for a loss, because lower risk costs and operating expenses offset falling revenues in its home market and crisis-torn Russia and Ukraine.
