Share trading turnover jumped 62% from January to February on the Budapest Stock Exchange

Share trading turnover jumped 62% from January to February on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT), as foreign investors went on a buying spree after publication of strong earnings reports for 2004. Single-counted daily turnover amounted to Ft 21.4 billion for the month, well over the daily average of Ft 12.6 billion in January. An index of real estate investment funds was introduced by the Association of Fund Management Companies in Hungary (Bamosz). Entitled the BIX, the index shows the average price of open-ended real estate investment funds. According to this index, returns made by such funds were 11.5% on average in the last two years. The Purchasing Manager Index hit an all-time low in February, falling 4.7 points from January to a seasonally adjusted 43.4. The PMI has never dipped below 45 since the Hungarian Association of Logistics, Purchasing and Inventory Management (Halpim) started compiling the index in 1995. The average jobless rate was 6.6% in the November–January period, up 0.3 percentage points on the October–December rate, and up 0.8 percentage points on the corresponding period a year earlier, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) reported. The average jobless rate was 6.1% in 2004, up 0.2 percentage points on 2003. National Motorway Rt (NA) vetoed a government decision requiring it to take out a Ft 125 billion commercial loan to bankroll ongoing road construction projects, something it was required to do under a new financing scheme approved by the government.