The National Bank of Hungary showed that foreign investors were the net sellers in every segment of the Hungarian securities markets in Q4 2009, except for HUF 13 billion net secondary market purchases of Hungarian government bonds issued abroad.
The bulk of foreign withdrawals were from Hungarian forint bonds, from two-week NBH bonds and from other bonds – bonds excluding government issues and mortgage backed bonds. Foreigners also sold, but in a much lower volume, Hungarian listed shares, counting on price gains. The market value of domestic investors' Hungarian securities holdings rose HUF 700 billion in the period as the market value of the total stock of Hungarian securities outstanding rose HUF 340 billion in Q4.
Foreign investors sold net HUF 21 billion listed shares in the last quarter but price gains still strengthened the market value of their stock by HUF 152 billion in the period. Their market share dropped to 72.8 pct from 73.8 pct. Non-residents were net sellers of government securities in the value of HUF 234 billion in Q4 but still held 43 pct of the total worth HUF 14,475 billion, including both domestic and foreign issues, at the end of last year. The total stock hardly changed in the quarter, and domestic banks and insurance companies bought the securities sold in the period.
