Lisbon, Dec. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - The Lisbon stock market is trading lower on Tuesday morning, with civil engineering and construction group Mota-Engil leading the losses after the Portuguese Environment Agency rejected the changes that the consortium led by the group wanted to make to the high-speed railway line.
At around 9:30 a.m. in Lisbon, the benchmark PSI (Portuguese Share Index) was maintaining its opening trend and falling 0.39% to 8,159.53 points, against a new high of 8,484.01 points recorded on 5 November, with 11 stocks falling, one rising (Sonae, 0.37% to €1.61) and four maintaining their prices (EDP at €3.86, Ibersol at €9.90, Jerónimo Martins at €20.24 and REN at €3.17).
Mota-Engil shares were down 1.65% to €5.07, one day after Portuguese Environment Agency rejected the changes that the AVAN Norte consortium wanted to make to the high-speed rail line, namely changing the Gaia station and building two bridges across the Douro River, according to a decision accessed by Lusa.
According to the Decision on the Environmental Compliance of the Implementation Project (DCAPE), the environment agency ruled that the "execution project for sub-sections STA4 and STA5" between Espinho and Porto was not environmentally compliant, but that the sections to the south (Oiã, in the region of Oliveira do Bairro) were compliant, "subject to compliance with the conditions set out in this decision".
Thus, the the environment agency rejects the changes that the AVAN Norte consortium (Mota-Engil, Teixeira Duarte, Alves Ribeiro, Casais, Conduril and Gabriel Couto) wanted to make to the route, especially in the districts of Vila Nova de Gaia and Porto, compared to what it had signed in the contract with Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), namely the relocation of the Gaia station from Santo Ovídio to Vilar do Paraíso and the construction of two bridges instead of one road-rail bridge over the Douro River.
Semapa, BCP and Teixeira Duarte were also suffering losses, falling 1.21% to €20.45, 1.03% to €0.88 and 0.91% to €0.66, respectively.
Following the same trend, CTT shares were down 0.60% to €7.35, as were EDP Renováveis and Galp, both falling 0.59% to €11.72 and €14.31.
Altri and Corticeira Amorim shares were also down, by 0.34% to €4.37 and 0.30% to €6.59.
The other two shares that were below the water line were NOS (-0.25% to €3.98) and Navigator (-0.13% to €3.07).
The main European stock markets were mixed today, in the last full session of the week, as the markets will only operate for half a session on Wednesday and will not open on Christmas Day and Friday.
Market interest in this session is focused on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from Spain and the US, which, in the latter case, will be released today before the opening of Wall Street.
In Spain's case, GDP figures showed that the contraction in the external sector slowed Spanish economic growth in the third quarter to 0.6%, one tenth less than in the previous quarter, and reduced second-quarter growth by one tenth to 0.7%.
Wall Street futures are showing slight declines of 0.02% for the Nasdaq and Dow Jones, after the indices closed higher on Monday, driven by stocks linked to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Meanwhile, amid geopolitical tensions between the US and Venezuela, the price of gold is back at historic highs, and after reaching US$4,497.6 per ounce, at this time it is currently up 0.94% and stands at US$4,486.3, while silver is also up 0.56% to US$69.45, although it came close to $70, with the price per ounce standing at US$69.99.
Brent, the benchmark crude oil in Europe, for delivery in February 2026, is advancing to US$62.14, compared to US$62.07 in the previous session.
The euro is stronger, rising to US$1.1782 on the Frankfurt foreign exchange market, compared to US$1.1758 on Monday and the new four-year high of US$1.1865 recorded on 16 September.
MC/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
