Foreign investors increased their holdings of Hungarian government securities to 28.7 percent in the first quarter of 2004 from 27.5 percent a year ago and from 27.3 percent at end-2003, the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) said on Monday. Foreigners were net buyers of government paper, the NBH said in a statement, adding foreigners' net purchases amounted to 187.4 billion forints ($890.7 million) -- and they also had exchange rate gains of 28.8 billion forints.
The total market capitalisation of the fixed income market amounted to 8,196.7 billion forints, a 4.8 percent increase over end-2003, with nearly four fifths of the increase coming from net issues and a smaller part from price rises, it said.
Foreigners also lifted their holdings of listed equities to 74.9 percent in the first quarter of 2004 from 71.3 percent at the end of 2003 and 71 percent in the first quarter of 2003, the central bank said.
Foreigners were net buyers of equities in a value of 136 billion forints, the NBH said, adding that foreigners posted gains of 437.3 billion forints on the equities they held.
The total market capitalisation of listed equities rose by 600.3 billion forints in the first quarter to 4,070.4 billion forints at the end of March, with 93 percent of the gain coming from price gains.
Source: Reuters
24.05.2004