Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: PSI Adds 0.76%, BCP Pops 3.62%, Galp Slides 2.77%

PSI Index Stretches Weekly Run, Closes at 9,093.82

The PSI (Portugal Stock Index) added 68.93 points, or 0.76%, to finish Friday at 9,093.82, extending Thursday's 1.44% surge and lifting the index 21.65% year-to-date. The advance came on broad bank and retail buying as Brent crude slid roughly 4% toward $89 a barrel after President Trump suspended planned strikes against Iran and signalled a possible weekend de-escalation deal. Volume thinned into the European close as traders booked weekly gains ahead of the World Cup opening weekend.

Banco Comercial Português Leads Blue Chips on Buyback Bid

Banco Comercial Português (BCP) jumped 3.62% to €0.95 as the bank's €509 million shareholder-return programme — €0.0344-per-share cash dividend already paid on 3 June plus an open-market buyback authorised at the 7 May assembly — pulled in renewed institutional accumulation. The move comes one day after Bank of Portugal Governor Álvaro Santos Pereira flagged a tighter mortgage taxa de esforço (debt-service ratio) cap that, paradoxically, lifts the credit-quality optics on incumbent retail banks. CTT Correios de Portugal (Portuguese postal operator and Banco CTT parent) led the broader board with a 4.36% spike. Semapa rose 2.57% to €23.95 and Navigator added 1.54% to €3.55 as pulp paper names tracked the weaker euro. REN (Redes Energéticas Nacionais — National Energy Grid) gained 1.00% to €3.54, NOS firmed 0.93% to €5.41, and Jerónimo Martins and Sonae posted modest 0.51% and 0.41% gains.

Galp Pays Back the Hormuz Premium as Oil Cracks

Galp Energia gave back its geopolitical bid, sliding 2.77% to €19.12 after Brent crude tumbled below $90 on the prospect of an Iran ceasefire. The drop fully reversed Tuesday's Hormuz-spike rally and made Galp the index's worst performer. EDP Renováveis (EDP Renewables) fell 0.73% to €13.63 and EDP Energias de Portugal slipped 0.33% to €4.47 as renewables tracked softer power-curve pricing.

Portuguese 10-Year Yield Eases to 3.37%, Bund Spread Narrows to 38 Basis Points

The Portuguese 10-year sovereign yield eased five basis points to 3.37%, its third consecutive daily decline, as the Trump-Iran de-escalation signal pulled the oil-led inflation premium out of euro-area duration. The German 10-year Bund finished at 2.99%, leaving the Portugal-Germany spread at roughly 38 basis points — well inside the 50-point territory that Lisbon traded earlier this spring. The yield curve flattened further as the front end held steady on yesterday's European Central Bank (ECB) 25-basis-point hike to a 2.25% deposit rate.

EUR/USD Holds Near $1.16 on Track for 0.5% Weekly Gain

The euro traded at $1.1572 against the dollar, down a marginal 0.05% on the session but on course for a 0.5% weekly advance — its third positive week in a row. A softer dollar carried the bid as markets priced the Middle East de-escalation; ECB President Christine Lagarde's hawkish revision of 2026 headline inflation to 3.0% on Thursday provided the underlying floor.

Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento Questions Whether the ECB Hike Was Necessary

Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento publicly questioned the necessity of the ECB's Thursday rate hike in remarks delivered Friday, arguing that the Middle East-driven inflation spike does not warrant pre-emptive monetary tightening and risks slowing the recovery just as the Portugal Transformação, Recuperação e Resiliência (PTRR — Transformation, Recovery and Resilience) execution phase ramps up. The intervention puts Lisbon squarely on the dovish side of the Eurogroup at a moment when the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) has already flagged Portugal's energy-import exposure as a 2026 vulnerability.

Thales Portugal Puts Santa Maria Azores Teleporto on the Lunar Communications Map

Thales Portugal confirmed Friday that the Santa Maria teleporto (ground station) in the Azores is now bidding for contracts to support future lunar communications infrastructure, leveraging the same mid-Atlantic site that already services European Space Agency (ESA) launches and maritime surveillance traffic. The move opens a second revenue line for the Azores ground-segment cluster and positions Portugal as a candidate node for NASA's Lunar Communications Relay and Navigation Systems network, which is currently building out its trans-Atlantic redundancy partners.

Lockheed Martin Floats Local F-35 Software and Maintenance for Portugal's Fighter Replacement Tender

Lockheed Martin told ECO News that any Portuguese F-35 purchase would include shared software updates and local maintenance — a direct response to operational-sovereignty concerns raised by parliamentary defence committees over the past month. The pitch lands as Defence Minister Nuno Melo prepares to formalise the FA-50 / Eurofighter / F-35 trade study by year-end. A Lockheed local-maintenance carve-out would re-route an estimated €1 billion of lifecycle spend through Portuguese aerospace primes including OGMA and Embraer Portugal.

Monday Watch

The PSI heads into Monday with the BCP dividend cushion intact, the energy complex hostage to whether the Trump-Iran weekend talks deliver a framework deal, and the sovereign curve pricing in a softer ECB second-half. Watch for Bank of Portugal Governor Álvaro Santos Pereira's scheduled Eurogroup commentary on Monday's macroprudential agenda, and for any pre-market readout from Galp ahead of its Q2 trading update window.