OTP Bank Retreats Most This Month on Greek Aid Concern
February 10, 2012, 11:53 AM ESTBy Andras Gergely
(Updates with closing prices in second paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- OTP Bank Nyrt., Hungary’s largest lender, dropped the most this month as Europe’s finance ministers held back approval of a rescue package for Greece, eroding demand for riskier emerging-market assets.
The shares fell 2.1 percent to 3,975 forint by 5 p.m. in Budapest, extending the decline this week to 3.3 percent after a 25 percent rally in January.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped as much as 2 percent today after Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said a parliamentary vote set to begin this weekend amounted to a ballot on euro membership as the country faced further delays to an aid package.
“Investors have taken their feet off the accelerator on the domestic market,” Akos Kuti, a Budapest-based analyst at Equilor Befektetesi Zrt., and colleagues wrote in an e-mailed report today. “After it seemed last week the Greek drama would be ending, it turned out we just opened a new chapter.”
--Editors: Peter Branton, Robert Valpuesta
To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
