The Budapest Stock Exchange’s main BUX index finished up 5.09% at 22,230.10, another nearly four-year closing high – the best since July 13, 2011 – Monday after rising 1.46% Friday. Over last week, it added 5.75% to a rise of 0.19% in the previous week. It is up 33.64% from year-end, after losing 10.40% last year.
Economic news portal bbj.hu has reported that OTP soared 8.03% to HUF 5,944, its highest close since July 4, 2011, on turnover of HUF 17.54 bln from a HUF 25.85 bln session total, more than two and a half times the daily average this year. Meanwhile MOL surged 5.08% to HUF 14,690 the highest close since November 8, 2013, on turnover of HUF 4.79 bln. At the same time Magyar Telekom improved 1.42% to HUF 430, a two-and-a-half-year closing high, on turnover of HUF 405 mln. Drug-maker Richter advanced 3.61% to HUF 4,310, a nine-month closing high, on turnover of HUF 2.93 bln. The bourseʼs mid-cap BUMIX went out 0.55% higher at 1,586.82, bbj.hu reported.
Investors besieged shares in expectation of consumer- and business-friendly government measures in the wake of a by-election on Sunday that saw the radical nationalist Jobbik party snatch a seat in parliament from ruling Fidesz. It was the second loss of a parliamentary mandate by Fidesz — the first was to a candidate backed by a coalition of centre-left and liberal opposition parties — in as many months. “Watch Hungary’s 2016 budget draft for populist measures,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note on Monday. However, the governing Fidesz party’s declining approval ratings raise risks of populist policy choices, it said.
via hungarymatters.hu and bbj.hu photo: bloomberg.com