February 20, 1990

LEAD: With a dozen personal computers placed neatly around a square table in a stuffy, windowless room, Hungary's stock exchange seems more like a student pilot project than a functioning financial market.

LEAD: In his first month as Governor, Jim Florio has quickly attacked the independent centers of power in state government, drawing into his office more personal control of the sprawling bureaucracy here than any recent governor.

LEAD: New Bishop for Brooklyn Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Palm Beach, Fla. will be the next head of the Brooklyn diocese, according to a Roman Catholic official. Page B1. Selma Still Smolders Blacks and whites mingle and seem to tolerate one another in Selma, Ala., but the divisions that surfaced 25 years ago still exist.

LEAD: A 10-YEAR, half-billion-dollar federally sponsored investigation is concluding that acid rain causes some significant environmental damage but far less than initially feared.

LEAD: The Soviet Union, under heavy pressure from Arab countries, has rejected an appeal from the Bush Administration to allow direct flights for Soviet Jews from Moscow to Israel, Administration officials said today.

LEAD: Seven weeks into his term, Mayor David N. Dinkins is facing the difficult challenges of moving an unwieldy city bureaucracy and of persuading supporters that he can make a difference in a city grappling with crime, drugs and poverty.

LEAD: Across South Florida, bumper stickers proclaim the end of the Castro era: ''Next Christmas in Havana.'' On Spanish-language radio, hour after hour is devoted to fevered speculation about a democratic millennium to come in Cuba. Even the Governor has joined in, convening a commission to imagine a Florida after Fidel.

LEAD: While the credit markets appear to have weathered the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. last week, the full fallout from the bankruptcy is likely to include higher interest rates.

LEAD: The owners of cooperatives, condominiums and rental apartments in New York City, who have already seen their property values stung by the stumbling of the local economy, have been getting more bad news in the mail: tax increases now coming due based on the ascent of real-estate values in the mid-1980's.

LEAD: Bishop Thomas V. Daily of Palm Beach, Fla., will be named the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn today, succeeding Bishop Francis J. Mugavero, who has led the diocese for 22 years, a Catholic church official said last night.

LEAD: A 28-year-old Manhattan security guard arrested in the dormitory-room rape of a freshman over the weekend worked for Columbia University for months despite a police record including convictions for gambling and impersonating a police officer, the authorities said yesterday.

LEAD: The nation's biggest airlines, stung by higher fuel prices and a slowdown in traffic in recent months, are nevertheless gambling on a turnaround and for the most part proceeding with ambitious expansion plans. But with a record number of new planes set for delivery this year, the carriers could find themselves stretched to remain profitable if current conditions continue, analysts say.