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With investor sentiment toward Hungary continuing to worsen, turnover on the Budapest Stock Exchange dropped 10% month on month in April, to leave daily trading at a pitiful average that was below €27,000.

Total turnover for the month fell to HUF168bn (€564m) in April, the bourse said, compared with HUF188bn a year previously, reports Hungary Around the Clock. That indicates an average daily turnover of just HUF8bn (€26,958). Meanwhile, the average transaction size on the market was HUF1.5m, half of what it was a year ago.

Trading volume in Budapest has been shrinking steadily since the crisis hit, with the Fidesz government's unpredictable policymaking offering little assurance for investors who are already wary of investing in the country. In 2007, monthly turnover often exceeded HUF500bn.

While the Budapest stock market started 2012 promisingly, activity dropped sharply in the second half of the year to leave total turnover in domestic equities at €16.8bn, compared with €27.25bn in 2011, according to the annual report of the CEE Stock Exchange Group. In Prague, turnover in 2012 decreased by 30.61% compared with 2011, dropping to €15.48bn from the previous €22.1bn. Prague's monthly turnover in April came in at CZK13.33bn (€515m).

While the Czech market finished the year with a far superior market capitalization - €28.19bn versus Budapest's €15.74bn - the Prague bourse features just 28 listed companies, compared with the 52 trading on the Hungarian market.