In the sharpest series of falls since 2011, Portugal’s PSI-20 saw €3.5 billion lopped of share valuations on Lisbon’s Euronext.
A climate of international political and economic instability triggered a loss of nerve on Friday with the ninth consecutive session ended lower than the last, leaving the Portuguese Stock Index at the year’s low.
Investors fear the fragility of emerging markets, a worsening in the US-China trade dispute with Trump’s $200 billion package of customs duties on Chinese imports still in the pipeline.
Millennium BCP was the heaviest loser in Lisbon, falling 2.68% in a day. The PSI-20 has fallen 5% in the last nine trading days from close to €69 billion at the end of August to just under €58.5 billion at close of trading today.
The market value of the top 18 listed shares has shrunk by nearly €3.5 billion with more than a third of the loss attributed to the devaluation of Galp Energia by 8.6%, or €1.191 billion, during this dire period.
Among the big losers are Jerónimo Martins and EDP, losing 9.4% of its value, a fall of €807 million. EDP in the last nine sessions had eased 2.3% - almost €280 million in terms of its market capitalisation.
Other losers have been Mota-Engil and Sonae Capital, down 9.4% and 10.4%, respectively.
European shares, by comparison have eased 3% over the same period to a five month low.
The crisis in emerging markets continues to cause concern, for example Argentina which has devalued and is seeking emergency aid from the IMF, Turkey and South Africa. Mota-Engil has several projects in Argentina, South Africa and Brazil - its shares dropped 1.59%.
Another of the significant declines is carried out by Pharol and paper companies Semapa and Navigator.
On the positive side, paper producer Altri, closed in positive territory with a rise of 0.26% as did CTT, NOS and EDP Renováveis.
