The Hungarian Stock Exchange, namely the predecessor to the Budapest Stock Exchange (BET), launched in 1864 with 17 equities, one debenture, 11 foreign currencies and 9 bills of exchange listed. Following the 1948 nationalization of the majority of private Hungarian firms, the government officially dissolved the exchange and took ownership of its assets. The reopening took place in 1990 with the current name. Now, BET ranks as the second largest stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe, by market capitalization and liquidity.
Among the listings are well-known and actively traded companies such as OTP Bank, MOL and Richter Gedeon. There are three equity indices that should be monitored by traders and investors worldwide in order to gauge the performance of the Hungarian stock market: BUX, BUMIX and CETOP - with BUX having the most detailed history, back to 1995. As of March 2022, BET has 120 listings and an equity market capitalization of 23 billion dollars.
