PRAGUE/BUDAPEST/WARSCHAU/MOSKAU (dpa-AFX) – The stock exchanges in Eastern Europe mostly made price gains on Thursday. In Moscow there was a particularly clear upturn, while in Prague it was down a bit. The focus of the trading day was the key interest rate decision by the European Central Bank (ECB). In the fight against persistently high inflation, the euro currency guardians came in eighth rate hike in a row after. The Council of the ECB decided on Thursday to raise key interest rates in the euro area by a further 0.25 percentage points.
In Poland, the upward trend in prices eased again somewhat in May, but remains at a comparatively high level. Consumer prices rose 13 percent year-on-year from 14.7 percent in April. Compared to the previous month, consumer prices remained stable in May.
On the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the Polish Wig 20 index closed 1.04 percent higher at 2097.34 points. The broader Wig gained 0.82 percent to 67,556.07 points. The shares of video game developer CD Projekt saw the strongest sales; they gained 5.8 percent. The titles had already risen sharply by more than 13 percent the day before.
The Russian RTS index (RTS) gained 1.79 percent on Thursday to 1054.30 points.
Hungary’s BUX rose 0.55 percent to 50,234.91 points. OTP Bank (Orságos Takar És Ker BK ON) posted the most significant sales here with an increase of around two percent. Pharmaceutical stock Gedeon Richter saw modest gains (up 0.1 percent), while MTelekom (Magyar Telekom Telecommunications) and MOL were down 1.2 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
In Prague, the PX (PX Prague Stock Exchange Index) fell by 0.37 percent to 1317.89 points. Bank stocks were among the losers, with Erste Group (Erste Group Bank) down 1.8 percent, Moneta Money Bank down 0.6 percent and Komercni Banka (Komercni Banka AS) down 0.2 percent./kat/spo/APA/ gl/men