Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: PSI Edges Up, Bank Profits Dip, Neuraspace Raises €15.6M

Market Wrap: Lisbon Edges Higher in a Becalmed August Session

Wednesday added a whisper of colour to an otherwise motionless week. The PSI index (Portuguese Stock Index) closed up 0.08% at 9,176.10 points, adding 7.08 points in a session so quiet it barely registered on the tape. Trading volumes were thin, as they tend to be in the first full week of August, and the day's move amounted to little more than a handful of the heavyweight names nudging the benchmark fractionally higher while the food-retail giant leaned the other way. Around Europe the mood was similarly noncommittal, with investors reluctant to take big positions ahead of the run of activity data and central-bank commentary still to come this week. For Lisbon, a third small step forward — however tentative — keeps the index in the upper half of its recent range and comfortably ahead for the year.

Movers: Heavyweights Nudge the Index Up as Jerónimo Martins Drags

With so little conviction in the market, it fell to the largest names to set the direction. The construction and engineering group Mota-Engil was the pick of the blue chips, rising about 0.65% to €4.64, and the renewables arm EDP Renováveis (EDP Renewables) added around 0.52% to €13.53. Millennium BCP — Banco Comercial Português (Portuguese Commercial Bank) — climbed roughly 0.41% to €1.09, extending a strong summer for the country's largest listed lender, while Galp Energia edged up about 0.20% to €19.83, holding onto the ground it gained after last month's bumper first-half results.

The main weight on the other side of the ledger was Jerónimo Martins. The food-retail group, owner of the Pingo Doce chain and Poland's Biedronka, slipped roughly 0.23% to €17.40, giving back a little more of the enthusiasm that had made it one of the market's strongest names earlier in the summer. With the index's biggest single constituent easing while the industrials and banks firmed, the gains and losses came close to cancelling out — which is exactly why the benchmark finished only marginally in the green.

Business & Tech Focus: Bank Profits Dip, Neuraspace Raises €15.6M, Estoril Sol's Loss Widens

Fresh analysis of the banking sector's first-half reporting season landed on Wednesday, and it tells a story of gently receding tides. The five largest banks operating in Portugal — Caixa Geral de Depósitos (General Deposit Bank), BCP, Novobanco, Santander Totta and BPI — earned an aggregate €2.54 billion between January and June, down about 2.7% on the same period last year. The culprit is familiar: with the European Central Bank having eased rates through the cycle, net interest income — the gap between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits, and still the industry's main engine — is under pressure. BCP was the only one of the group to grow that line, up 3.4% to €1,493.8 million, which explains much of its outperformance; the others leaned harder on rising fee income to cushion the squeeze. The retrenchment is visible in headcount too, with the five biggest lenders cutting 283 jobs over the past year.

The day's brightest corporate note came from the technology sector. Neuraspace, a Coimbra-based start-up that uses artificial intelligence to track and manage traffic in orbit, closed a €15.6 million funding round — €9.6 million drawn from the Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (Recovery and Resilience Plan) and €6 million in private capital led by Lince Capital, Explorer Investments and Armilar Venture Partners. The company, whose revenue has jumped more than 350% over the past year, already monitors upwards of 600 satellites for commercial and institutional clients and will use the money to expand internationally and to install a new radar — potentially at a Portuguese Air Force base — as it pushes deeper into the fast-growing market for space surveillance and orbital defence.

Less happily, the casino operator Estoril Sol confirmed a sharply wider loss. The company that runs Casino Estoril and Casino de Lisboa reported a €17.9 million loss for the year, up from €4.8 million previously, weighed down by €13.2 million in asset impairments and a €3.3 million provision for a restructuring aimed at permanently lowering operating costs. Estoril Sol also flagged the need for roughly €35 million in fresh capital to satisfy gaming-law requirements. Worker representatives, meeting in plenary, protested management's silence over the restructuring plans, insisting any turnaround must not come at the expense of jobs.

Bonds and the Euro

Portugal's borrowing costs held steady in a calm fixed-income market. The 10-year Obrigações do Tesouro (Treasury bonds) yield slipped about one basis point to roughly 3.46%, keeping it near the lower end of its recent range and leaving the spread over benchmark German Bunds close to the historically tight levels that have defined the summer — a sign investors remain relaxed about the country's public finances even as the debt ratio ticks back up. In the currency market the euro extended its advance, trading around $1.1542 against the dollar, up from about $1.1520 a day earlier and holding comfortably above the $1.15 line it reclaimed in July. Firmer euro-zone data and a softer dollar continue to underpin the move — welcome relief for import-heavy consumers, if a mild headwind for Portugal's exporters.

The Day Ahead

Thursday looks set to follow the week's pattern: light domestic newsflow, a thinning earnings calendar and a market still taking its cues from the macro backdrop rather than any single Portuguese story. With the euro firm above $1.15, bond yields anchored and the banks and industrials pulling gently against the retail heavyweights, Lisbon looks likely to spend another session drifting on low volume — the kind of quiet August trading that rewards patience over conviction.