Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: Bumper Earnings From Galp, BCP and Sonae Cap a Losing July

Weekend Wrap: Lisbon Ends a Losing July Even as Its Companies Print Records

There is no trading in Lisbon this Saturday, 1 August, so this is a weekend edition looking back over the week and the month just closed rather than a fresh session. And what a paradox July left behind: a stretch in which one blue chip after another unveiled record or near-record half-year profits, yet the PSI index (Portuguese Stock Index) still limped over the line lower than it began the month. The benchmark ended Friday's session down 0.33% at 9,116.04 points, and, tellingly, it did so while the major European bourses closed in the green — a national index once again marching to its own beat. July was, on balance, a down month for Lisbon, a modest give-back after a first half that had delivered the market's best start to a year in some time and still leaves the PSI holding a comfortable double-digit gain for 2026 as a whole.

The explanation is one this briefing has returned to repeatedly through the reporting season: with so much good news already priced in after a strong run, investors have spent July "selling the news," banking gains into even the best results rather than paying up for them. Galp's bumper report earlier in the season was met with a sell-off; EDP Renováveis' near-doubling of profit drew another; and Friday's session saw Sonae shares slip the very week the retailer confirmed double-digit profit growth. Solid, in this market, has not been enough.

The Week's Blue-Chip Scorecard

Friday's closing board captured the mood neatly. On the winning side, Semapa — the paper-and-cement holding company — led the index up 1.21% to €20.10, followed by EDP — Energias de Portugal (Energies of Portugal), which added 0.61% to €4.470; Ibersol, the restaurant group, rose 0.52% to €9.61; Galp Energia, the flagship oil-and-gas group, edged up 0.46% to €19.69; and cork maker Corticeira Amorim gained 0.30% to €6.62. Pulling the other way, REN — Redes Energéticas Nacionais (National Energy Networks), the grid operator, was the day's heaviest faller, down 1.99% to €3.455; construction group Teixeira Duarte lost 1.61% to €0.4885; retail-and-tech conglomerate Sonae slid 1.45% to €2.0400 in a classic post-results fade; supermarket giant Jerónimo Martins eased 1.20% to €17.36; and Banco Comercial Português (BCP) dipped 0.19% to €1.0650. It was, in miniature, the whole month: strong companies, soft share prices.

Earnings Deluge: Galp, BCP, Sonae and REN by the Numbers

Strip away the day-to-day share moves and the underlying corporate picture from this reporting week was genuinely strong across the board. Galp Energia set the tone, lifting first-half net profit 44% to €812 million, with second-quarter group net income up 45% to €540 million and adjusted replacement-cost EBITDA climbing 52% to €1,272 million — a surge management pinned on a 17% rise in Brazilian oil output and a 28% jump in the Brent crude price over the quarter. The oil group raised its full-year guidance and flagged a higher dividend for shareholders.

BCP, the country's largest listed bank, grew first-half net profit 12.7% to €565.8 million, up from €502 million a year earlier, as its net interest margin continued to widen. Sonae posted a first-half net profit attributable to shareholders of €123 million, up 20.5%, on revenue of €5.6 billion (+6.3%) and underlying EBITDA of €536 million (+13.3%); its second quarter alone brought in €75 million, a 27.3% jump, while net debt fell to €1.8 billion. And REN, the regulated grid operator, rounded off the week with first-half net profit up 42.1% to €93.4 million and EBITDA of €284.2 million (+10.8%), even as it lifted investment 23.1% to €184.6 million to carry a record first-half electricity load of 27.2 terawatt-hours, 70.4% of it met by renewable sources.

Government Bonds and the Euro

Portugal's funding costs stayed strikingly benign through the week. At its latest auction the Treasury placed €1,262 million of debt, clearing 10-year Obrigações do Tesouro (Treasury bonds) at 3.439% — fractionally below the 3.452% paid at June's sale — and a longer 16-year line at 3.883%, with demand described as solid. In the secondary market the 10-year yield hovered around 3.50%, keeping the spread over benchmark German Bunds historically tight, a premium that reflects Portugal's run of budget surpluses and its steadily falling debt burden. The euro, meanwhile, held its ground: EUR/USD traded around $1.150 into the weekend, little changed and comfortably inside the range it has occupied for weeks.

Business & Tech Focus: Sonae Leans Into AI as NOS Profit Jumps

The most interesting thread inside the earnings blizzard was less about any single profit line than about how one of the country's largest groups is trying to grow it. Presenting Sonae's numbers, chief executive Cláudia Azevedo credited the improvement not only to operational discipline and productivity but to what she called a "significant transformation leveraging artificial intelligence" — a rare, explicit public link between AI adoption and reported margins from a Portuguese blue chip, and a signal of where the group intends to find future efficiency. The technology theme carried through the portfolio: telecoms operator NOS, in which Sonae holds a major stake, delivered quarterly net profit of €78 million, up 34%, while the group's health-and-beauty arm grew revenue 12.3% to €906 million and pet-care chain Musti advanced 14.7%. For a conglomerate long defined by supermarkets and shopping centres, the message from the results was that its digital and specialist retail bets are increasingly doing the heavy lifting.

The Week Ahead

Lisbon reopens on Monday to the tail end of the reporting calendar, with a handful of second-tier names still to publish and investors likely to keep applying the same unforgiving test: only genuine surprises will be rewarded. Beyond company results, the direction of Brent crude — which has done so much for Galp's numbers — and any fresh signal on the interest-rate path will set the tone, while the euro's quiet range and Portugal's tight bond spread suggest the macro backdrop, at least, should stay calm. After a July that gave a little back, the question for August is whether a market this well-supplied with strong earnings can finally be persuaded to pay up for them.