Markets, Business & Tech Briefing: PSI Jumps 1.2% Toward Highs, CTT and Jeronimo Martins Lead

Portuguese Equities: PSI Jumps 1.2% Back Toward Multi-Year Highs

Lisbon roared back on Wednesday, more than reversing the previous session's utility-led wobble as a broad advance carried the market back within touching distance of its highs for the year. The PSI index (Portuguese Stock Index) closed 22 July up 1.16% at 9,277.62 points, adding 105.95 points from Tuesday's 9,171.67 finish and clearing the 9,250 level for the first time in a fortnight. The rally tracked a firmer tone across European bourses, but it also had genuine breadth at home: the gains were led by consumer-services and industrial names rather than the usual utility heavyweights, and only a couple of blue chips ended in the red. At Wednesday's close the index sits roughly 20% higher than a year ago and just short of the 9,409-point peak it touched in April, leaving Lisbon comfortably in bull-market territory as the summer earnings season approaches.

Blue-Chip Movers

Wednesday's leadership came from an unusually wide spread of names. Postal operator CTT — Correios de Portugal (Post Office of Portugal) was the standout, surging 4.02% to lead the board, while retailer Jerónimo Martins climbed 3.52% as investors positioned ahead of next week's first-half results. Construction and concessions group Mota-Engil rose 2.25% and grid operator REN — Redes Energéticas Nacionais (National Energy Networks) added 2.07%, a striking rebound for a utility name after Tuesday's slide. Energy major Galp Energia gained 1.48% to around €19.90, and EDP — Energias de Portugal (Energies of Portugal) recovered 1.34% with its renewables arm EDP Renováveis up 1.07%, unwinding much of the prior day's damage. Paper-and-pulp producer Navigator (0.82%), cork group Corticeira Amorim (0.77%) and Semapa (0.48%) rounded out a firmly positive session. The two exceptions were modest: Banco Comercial Português (BCP), the country's largest listed bank, eased 0.28% as financials lagged the rally, and retail-and-telecoms group Sonae slipped 0.24%.

Government Bonds and the Euro

Portuguese sovereign debt stayed under mild pressure even as equities rallied. The yield on the 10-year Obrigações do Tesouro (Treasury bonds) edged up about two basis points to 3.55%, extending a roughly 25-basis-point climb over the past month as traders continued to pare back expectations for further near-term rate cuts from the European Central Bank (ECB). The spread over 10-year German Bunds — the market's gauge of Lisbon's credit standing — remained in the mid-30s basis points, still historically tight and a reminder of how far Portugal's borrowing premium has narrowed since the debt-crisis years and its recent run of budget surpluses. The euro, meanwhile, was becalmed: EUR/USD traded at $1.1412, virtually unchanged on the day and holding inside the narrow band that has framed the pair through most of July. With no first-tier euro-area or US data to force a break, the currency applied little fresh pressure on Portugal's exporters or its import bill.

Business & Tech Focus: Earnings Season Opens With Galp and EDP

The corporate calendar is what is now driving Lisbon's tape, and the domestic first-half reporting season is about to begin in earnest. Galp Energia will publish its full second-quarter results on Monday, 27 July, before the opening of Euronext Lisbon, with an analysts' call scheduled for 11:00 Lisbon time — the first hard read on a stock that, alongside EDP and BCP, formed the trio of PSI names posting billion-euro profits last year. Galp's mid-July trading update has already set an upbeat frame: upstream production averaged 127,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the quarter, up 12% year-on-year, while its refining margin came in at a robust $16.8 per barrel against a Dated Brent average near $104, and renewable installed capacity reached 2.3 gigawatts, up 39% from a year earlier. Attention then turns to EDP, which has set 30 July for its half-year numbers; after this month's bouts of utility-sector selling, the grid-and-generation giant will need the figures to justify a valuation that analysts have been nudging higher on the strength of its US renewables pipeline. Retailer Jerónimo Martins — the index's steadiest performer of late and again among Wednesday's top risers — will be watched for confirmation that Iberian and Polish grocery volumes are holding up. How this cluster of reports lands over the coming week will set the market's tone into August.

Deal Watch: Galp–Moeve Downstream Combination

Running underneath the earnings countdown is the biggest structural story on Lisbon's trading desks: Galp Energia's plan to combine its downstream business with Spain's Moeve, the former Cepsa. Galp reiterated in its latest update that talks with Moeve's shareholders are "progressing constructively" and that all parties remain committed to a transaction, with a signed agreement now targeted for the second half of the year. The proposed structure would fold refining, chemicals and trading into one industrial platform and build a co-controlled Iberian mobility business around roughly 3,500 fuel-retail sites. The remaining sticking point is political rather than commercial: negotiations with the Portuguese government have centred on security of fuel supply and investment commitments for the strategically important Sines refinery. Any concrete detail — or fresh delay — alongside Monday's results is likely to remain the single biggest swing factor for Galp shares into August.

The Week Ahead

Thursday's session will test whether Wednesday's broad advance marks a durable push back toward April's highs or merely a one-day snap-back, with the countdown to Galp's 27 July results, EDP's 30 July numbers and the direction of euro-area bond yields the key variables to watch.