The Budapest Stock Exchange’s main BUX index finished up 0.16% at 22,098.77 points on Monday after rising 1.52% on Friday. It was up 32.85% from the year-end, after losing 10.40% last year. Over last week, the BUX was up 0.87% after rising 0.30% the previous week. The bailout deal for Greece reached by euro zone leaders on Monday morning and Chinese shares’ bounce to two-week highs on better than expected foreign trade data helped lift the Budapest parquet steeply, too – initially.
Later on, investors seemed to ponder some possible repercussions of the Greek deal, and the BUX spent most of the afternoon in light red, struggling back above the waterline only towards close, mainly on OTP. First, just as much Greece’s half-year ordeal has not shackled the BUX due to Hungary’s very few direct financial or business links to Greece, the promising Greek deal did not boost the market for long either. After two days of healthy rises, the “buy on the rumour, sell on the fact” effect took its tall.
Meanwhile the Hungarian forint was trading at 310.49 to the euro late on Monday on the interbank forex market, up from 312.12 late on Friday and 312.61 late on Sunday. Central European currencies rose to multi-week highs after euro zone leaders agreed a conditional bailout deal with Greece to keep it in the single currency. Greece triggered a risk-on situation, benefiting first and foremost those assets in the CEE region that proved to be quasi immune to the ups and downs of the Greek story in the past half year.
via hungarymatters.hu photo: bloomberg.com