On 11 May 2017, the Budapest Stock Exchange held its annual general meeting. The members of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board were elected. The owners also accepted the report for the 2016 business year, as well as the Supervisory Board and the auditor reports. According to the annual report, BSE’s EBITDA for 2016 was HUF 383 million, while its profit after tax amounted to HUF 73 million. A resolution was passed on dividend payment and the remuneration of officers. The management of BSE also presented the results to date of the 2016-2020 five-year strategy and the most important projects for 2017.

Leaders of seven Hungarian companies were on hand to ring the opening bell Tuesday at the London Stock Exchange, marking their participation in the joint business development programme of the Budapest Stock Exchange and ELITE, a company of the London Stock Exchange Group. In line with BSE strategy, the ELITE programme aims to provide world-class training to Hungarian companies to enable them to later successfully conduct capital raising activities.

The Hungarian capital became for two days the centre of the capital markets as Budapest Stock Exchanged hosted the annual World Exchange Congress on 29th - 30 th March. The World Exchange Congress is a one-of-a-kind occasion, bringing together top representatives of various exchanges (large major players together with smaller frontier markets’ representatives, the traditional exchanges, as well as the innovators and the disruptors), clearing houses, supranational institutions, industry experts and consultants as well as a plethora of technology companies, continuously innovating and reshaping the global financial ecosystem. It was a very vibrant environment for sharing ideas and learning from each other’s experience about the latest trends and a great chance to make steps towards new collaborations and partnerships.

On Friday night, the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) honoured the Best of 2016 in the Hungarian capital market. The “BÉT Legek Díj” (Best of BSE Awards) was presented in ten categories on the basis of market performance and the decisions of a professional panel. Among others, the “Investment Service Provider of the Year” and the “The Best Investment Story of 2016 in the Stock Market” were selected, and the banks and investment service providers with the highest stock exchange turnover were also recognized.

On 26 January 2017, the Budapest Stock Exchange will be in Warsaw, promoting opportunities to invest in the Hungarian stock exchange. As part of Hungarian Day, international (primarily Polish) institutional investors will have the chance to learn about the companies available on the BSE and to meet the leaders of five companies listed on the Exchange.

The Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) and Bank of China (BoC) signed a memorandum of understanding in order to familiarize Chinese investors with Hungarian companies and to attract Chinese issuer companies to acquire capital through BÉT. The two organizations also cooperate strongly to expand the market for both yuan denominated instruments and direct investments into the Chinese onshore market via the RQFII program. The MoU signed by BÉT and Bank of China aligns with China’s „One Belt, One Road“ initiative, of which Hungary is an active partner since its inception.

For the first time, the Budapest Stock Exchange has used decategorisation as a sanction in response to listed companies committing misconduct with a gravity that necessitated pulling them from their original share categories due to the severity of the violation, in order to protect the interests of investors. The agreed measure affects three listed issuers, who will be decategorised by BSE for a minimum of 6 months to compel them to comply with the relevant regulations and provide investors with the ability to exercise even greater care when making investment decisions concerning these companies.

A new development is expected to attract interest in the Budapest Stock Exchange after BSE, in collaboration with Erste Befektetési Zrt. (Erste Investment Ltd.) and OTP Bank Nyrt. (OTP Bank Plc.), launched market making in BUX index futures trading on 5 December. Thanks to this innovation, BSE may be able to bring back experienced investors from the 1990s and 2000s to the trading floor, besides attracting new ones.

One of the priorities of the strategy of Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) is to disseminate knowledge of the stock exchange as a catalyst for the economy to a wider audience and to be actively involved in raising financial awareness among the general public. With this in mind, BSE has concluded a cooperation agreement with Pénziránytű Alapítvány (Money Compass Foundation) in order to launch joint programmes to enhance the basic knowledge of finances and the stock exchange and to develop investor awareness among youth aged 14-18. As a first step in the cooperation between the two organisations, an ambitious online stock exchange game will be launched for young people next year.

BUX passed its previous 2007 peak, having broken through to a new record with the index reaching 30,540 points in November. This was not the only exciting event at the stock exchange in the penultimate month of the year: trading with the new Alteo shares was launched and the debut of Duna House as a new issuer was also marked. Stock exchange turnover in November exceeded that in October, but top shares turned in a mixed performance: Magyar Telekom gained 5.8 per cent, OTP 0.7 per cent and MOL 2.0 per cent, while Richter shares fell by 2.5 per cent. This time, WOOD topped the equity market share rankings among stock exchange members, with Concorde ranked second and Equilor third.