Euronext Lisbon - insights from Portugal (Acções Portugal)

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Euronext Lisbon: plunging in bear mode?

Since the last post, dated from the 7th of January, very little has changed. In fact things got a bit worse with last day's news on Citybank, US (pilling) stocks and Germany's 15 year low in confidence indicator on investment.
Euronext Lisbon is accumulating the biggest losses in currently live markets (-2,82% at 10:40 GMT). I think only Nikkei did worse. But let's wait for the end of the session.
The truth is that most probably the international investment funds are fleeing from Lisbon, not due to a particularly bad economy but due to it's peripheral and small weight. The harvest times are over for a while, but one thing is sure, some of the stocks in Euronext Lisbon are reaching appalling prices, quite under evaluated according to its economic performance.

Monday 7 January 2008

Down, down, down, high society

Elis Regina a late Brazilian singer (between jazzy and bossa nova) immortalized a song with a refrain like to title of this post. And down, down, down is the word for the beginning of 2008 in the world of stock exchanges and, in particular, for some of Euronext Lisbon quotes. Beating historical minimums seams to be the most popular motto amongst the Portuguese Stock exchange. Examples? Sonae Industria, Impresa, Sonae.com, Martifer and Sonae SGPS. The last three for instance are falling at the moment more than 6% today!
Too much? Some say that this is usual in Lisbon due to a higher than average risk aversion of most of the investor playing in Euronext. It ought to be something like this because if you look to the intrinsic value of some of the down goers it does not make any sense. Maybe the time for cheap buys is coming here sooner than later. But beware, things are very, very rocky!

Monday 10 December 2007

New projects for Euronext Lisbon Blog

Hello. I'm still here. The blog has been quiet for two weeks now but you could say it has been a time to think about the future.
Euronext Lisbon will come back in a different approach to the market in the beginning of 2008. The daily post on the market will not be mandatory and the stress will be in translating some of the most relevant news on the market and trying to answer questions from the readers.
At the same time I'll try to monetize the weblog. In this moment I'm searching for possibilities. One of the already chosen is Payperpost, a service that I'm sure the reader most on to the blog scene already knows. It was on a blog that I met Payperpost and by the reactions of the experimented users it must be an honest deal.
This is in fact my first payperpost experience. And for now this is the "official" blog advertising sponsor of Euronext Lisbon. In short, a blogger gets paid to review and talk about something or someone that wants to present itself to the community.
The demands from the company that buys the post very but on thing is unavoidable: every paid post must be disclosed, this is the policy of PayPerPost and it is also the only way I will ever receive money from a post. See you soon!

Thursday 22 November 2007

Hostil Take Over targeting Brisa

After yesterday closing came to public that the Spanish Abertis had bought, in and out of the market, during the last weeks, about 8% of Brisa's capital accumulating a total of circa 18%. Brisa has about 39% of it's capital circulating in the market as free-float. Brisa closed today's session gaining 4,66% with PSI 20 climbing 1,16%.

In the beginning of the afternoon Brisa publicly denounced the cooperation agreement it had signed with Abertis in 2002. This agreement lead to a swap of stocks but since then Brisa sold almost every stock of Abertis; it seams that Abertis has done the opposite.
According to the press Brisa has a hard core of united stock holders leaded by the family Mello. All together this group aggregates 45% of the capital.
Both Brisa and Abertis are companies specialized in the constructing and exploring highways but also have other secondary activities. Brisa has begun some weeks ago its first major business in the USA.

Wednesday 21 November 2007

And down they go!

EDP rose 0,88% disguising along with PTM (+4.23%), Jerónimo Martins (+4.20%) the mine crash that affected 16 companies. 14 out of 16 fell more than one percent. 8 out of 14 fell more than 2%. 4 out of 8 fell more than 3% and Impresa managed to slide 7,69%. Overall all sectors were targeted by the depressive mood and some companies come very close to the year minimums.

Out of PSI 20, Martifer, for instance, closed at 8,3€ the lowest value since it was admitted to Euronext Lisbon in mid 2007.

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Today EDP sneezed

When EDP sneezes Euronext Lisbon almost gets a cold. I guess today Euronext Lisbon was the only stock exchange that closed below yesterdays figures. During the days things were even uglier than the final scenery but even so PSI 20 lost 0,12% when most of the indexes gained more than 1%.
EDP lost 1,73% and the recovery by BCP, 1,64%, and by BPI, 2,41% was not enough to counterbalance the bad mood.
In the top of the worst we had Sonae Industria, 3,79%, Semapa, -3,31%, Jerónimo Martins, -2,24%, Brisa, -1,98% and ESF (BES), -1,88%.
Better days will come.

Monday 19 November 2007

Mini stampede to begin the week

The situation worsened during the day and ended with a nasty outlook all over the world. Some relevant opinions presenting a gloomy future certainly helped to set the global mood.

Euronext Lisbon was not an exception. PSI 20 index lost 1,41%. In the green, and barely, only two titles: Impresa, 0,44% and Jerónimo Martins, 0,18%.

Well but I must not delay any further the bad, bed news. With the worst behaviour of the day we had:

Sonae SGPS, 4,83%

Soares da Costa, 4,05%

Sonae Industria, 3,53%

Altri, 3,49%

Portucel, 3,33%

The heavy weights didn’t behaved much better. PT for instance lost 2,37% and EDP 2,11%.

According to Diário Económico today the European Stock Exchanges registered the biggest fall in three months. The pre-announced recession in the USA and the perspective of less “gas” in the Chinese economy are the reasons to blame… for now.

Promoting the crisis?

I’m completely amazed! I subscribed a service of potential sponsored reviews to help sustaining Euronext Lisbon and I received the oddest first offer. The suggestion comes from a site called Bad Credit Offers. I’m a little naïf I must confess but in a time where the sub prime crisis is far from over I can’t avoid some stupefaction when there is a business opportunity specialized in serving credit to people with knowledgeable bad credit history.
The site is attractive and I must say compelling. The offer is diversified, from auto loans to ahm, ahm, home loans. Sub prime crisis? No!

Thursday 15 November 2007

Is there a trend in Euronext Lisbon?

Is there a trend in Euronext Lisbon? I honestly can't see it.
Today PSI 20 fell 0,87%.
EDP climbed 1,7% but six other companies fell more than 2% each:
PT, GALP, Mota-Engil, ESF (BES), CIMPOR and JM.

Wednesday 14 November 2007

PSI 20 in tune with the world

PSI 20 index climbed 0.33% in a movement in tune with the majority of the European stock exchanges. A rare scenary in the last days.
Galp (+2.72%) resumed the up mountain path that begun with the last week's good news from Brazil.
The highlights in the green:
Brisa, + 1,9%
Soares da costa, +1,77%
Portucel, + 1,65%

The highlights in the read:
PT Multimédia, -1,29%
Impresa, -1,28%
PT, -1,15%.

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Going down: PSI 20, -0,57%

Four companies went up by more than 1%...
PT, 2,37%
Impresa, 2,19%
Cimpor 1,45%
Brisa 1,11%

... and four went down by more than 1%:
EDP, 4,27%
REN, 2,73%
BPI, 1,61%
GALP, 1,20%

A mild decline - PSI 20: -0,40%

Correcting a little from last weeks valorization, GALP ended the day losing 8,18%. The news of a small fire in the refinery near Oporto didn't help either.
Another big mover was PT Multimedia that lost 3,91%. The title as not quite stabilized since the spin off.
PSI 20 finished in the read but only by 0,40%.
The justification for this comes from EDP, presently the biggest in PSI 20, which gained 1,44%. PT also climbed (+0,76%). Cimpor (+1,98%) and Redes Electricas Nacionais (+1,95%) had the biggest gains in today's session.

Friday 9 November 2007

Galp up by 24,69%

And that's a wrap for this week. EDP touched the sky and GALP ended up in paradise. A memorable week for the two biggest companies in Euronext Lisbon.
Galp Energia closed at 15,40€, climbing 24,69% (see previous post). It was followed by far by Sonae SGPS, +3,46%. The latter kept rising due to the intention to spin off in the begging 2008 the financial brunch of Sonae SGPS. This was indeed the spin off week, with the concretization of PT Multimedia separation from PT and also with the announced intention by EDP to spin off its renewable energy division, also during the next year. Remember that with this year’s acquisition in the USA by EDP, and with the significant investment in Portugal and Spain this company is already number 4 worldwide in renewable energies.
PSI 20 index closed gaining 2,14%.

Extra: Oil Fields Forever

When one finds one of the biggest fields of the best oil nature can provide one ends up rich, very rich: GALP Energia owner of 10% of the Brazilian fields yesterday discovered is climbing steeply again: more than 21% ate 11h00, GMT.
PSI 20 index is up by 2,42%.
The Tupi oil field will double Brazil oil production capability. With this new field it will have an oil surplus becoming an international exporter. Brazil’s reserves will most probably surpass Nigeria’s.
More here: "Galp says Tupi Sul field's estimated recoverable reserves 5-8 bln barrels".

Thursday 8 November 2007

Galp Energia up 13,72%

In a day where PSI 20 ended up broken in two with huge rises but also significant losses I think it is justifiable to publish the entire list of quotes.
Galp benefited from the news of the finding of a very important oil reserve in Brazil, a field where Galp is co-owner. PT Multimedia and Sonae.com are starting (?) to experience the volatility expected for the next months: will they merge?
And EDP is rising probably due to the performance and expectations of its renewable energy investments: EDP is the fourth biggest in the world in this line of business.
On the downturn business as usual bad results equals lower stock exchange value (Impresa), what goes up must come down (Altri), uncertainty can lead to less value (BCP).