LISBON: Portugal equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Financials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares higher. At the close in Lisbon, the PSI 20 rose 0.50%. The biggest gainers of the session on the PSI 20 were Banco Comercial Portugues (LS:BCP), which rose 5.72% or 0.0470 points to trade at 0.8690 at the close. Pharol SGPS SA (LS:PHRA) added 1.77% or 0.0040 points to end at 0.2300 and Galp Energia Nom (LS:GALP) was up 1.47% or 0.2100 points to 14.4500 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mota Engil (LS:MOTA), which lost 1.57% or 0.0260 points to trade at 1.6270 in late trade. J. Martins SGPS (LS:JMT) declined 1.28% or 0.2050 points to end at 15.8550 and Sonae Capital (LS:SONAC) shed 1.12% or 0.0080 points to 0.7060. Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 21 to 9 and 12 ended unchanged on the Lisbon Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Brent oil for March delivery was down 0.55% or 0.31 to $55.70 a barrel. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.79% or 0.42 to hit $52.59 a barrel, while the February Gold contract fell 0.26% or 3.15 to trade at $1196.65 a troy ounce. EUR/USD was up 0.25% to 1.0639, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8716. The US Dollar Index was down 0.24% at 101.22.
