Lisbon, Feb. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The Lisbon stock exchange maintained its opening trend on Monday morning and was trading lower, with shares in Ibersol and EDP Renováveis down 1.41% to €8.38 and 1.22% to €8.93 respectively, with all eyes on developments in North America with respect to trade tariffs.
At around 9.20 a.m. in Lisbon, the benchmark PSI index was down 0.65% to 6,482.18 points, with 11 of its constituent shares down from Friday's close, two up (CTT, up 0.85% to €5.94 and Jerónimo Martins, up 0.26% to €19.10) and two unchanged (NOS at €3.39 and REN at €2.38).
Ibersol and EDP Renováveis were followed down by Galp, BCP and Corticeira Amorim, which fell 1.05% to €16.04, 0.95% to €0.50 and also 0.95% to €8.37.
Before the market opened, Galp released its refining results for the last quarter of 2024, when its margin fell 15% year-on-year, but increased 12% over the previous quarter, to $5.2 per barrel of oil.
Also falling were shares in Mota-Engil, Semapa and Altri, down 0.69% to €2.87, 0.67% to €14.92 and 0.52% to €5.73 respectively. Similarly, shares in Navigator, EDP and Sonae fell 0.51% to €3.5, 0.49% to €3.02 and 0.11% to €0.90.
The main European stock markets were trading in the red in response to fears of a trade war, given the imminent entry into force on Tuesday of tariffs imposed by the US on Mexico, Canada and China. Markets were off more than 1%.
The euro was also weaker, at $1.0230 on the Frankfurt exchange market, compared to $1.0362 on Friday and $1.0218 on 13 January, which had been its weakest since 10 November 2022.
On Friday, the euro had already slipped below $1.04, a day after the European Central Bank lowered interest rates by 25 basis points and Germany's inflation rate fell.
The tariffs imposed by the new US president, Donald Trump, on products from Canada, Mexico and China and the planned retaliation by those countries threaten to trigger a trade war and a spiral of inflation in the US, at a time when the country is recovering from a cycle of rising prices, according to most experts quoted by Spanish news agency Efe.
As Trump announced on Sunday, he expects to speak by phone on Monday with Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, but does not see "anything dramatic" coming out of these talks, which are to take place shortly before the start of new 25% tariffs on most imports from these two neighbouring countries.
The Indian rupee also hit an all-time low today and was trading at 87 per dollar on the international currency markets, affected by the imposition of US tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
In Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index, the Nikkei, fell 2.66%, while the Seoul Stock Exchange's main indicator, the Kospi, also fell 2.52% in Monday's session, after Trump's announcement of higher tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China sparked fears of a new trade war.
Among the most important data to be released on Monday are preliminary inflation estimates and the January purchasing managers' index (PMI) in the euro zone and the US.
On Friday, Wall Street closed in the red.
On the commodities market, the price of Brent crude oil for April delivery, the benchmark for Europe, rose to $76.78, compared to $75.67 on Friday.
Gold, meanwhile, fell 0.15% to $2,797.4 per ounce.
Bitcoin, the most widely used cryptocurrency on the market, fell 1.47% to $95,537.
MC/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
