Lisbon shares higher midmorning led by BCP, Portucel; BPI drops

Lisbon shares higher midmorning led by BCP, Portucel; BPI drops

	Published : Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:08 By : Agencies Print this Story

LISBON (AFX) - Shares were higher in midmorning trade led by blue chip BCP and pulp and paper company Portucel, while BCP's rival Banco BPI was down, dealers said.

At 11.23 am, the PSI 20 index was up 28.76 points or 0.25 pct at 11,571.18.

Equities opened higher, tracking major European indices, and stayed in the black all morning.

BCP gained 0.05 eur or 1.76 pct to 2.89 after reports over the weekend cited sources from BCP as admitting the bank's defeat in its 4.33 bln eur bid for its smaller rival BPI.

'Following the news, the market thinks that the bid is likely to fail, so investors think that BCP is vulnerable to a bid itself,' said a Lisbon-based trader at a Portuguese brokerage.

BCP full year 2006 results are due tomorrow after the market closes.

Meanwhile, BPI dropped 0.15 or 2.36 pct at 6.21.

'BPI is down because if the BCP bid at 5.70 per share fails then the current price is not justifiable, the trader said.

Portucel rose 0.06 or 2.32 pct at 2.65, and major stakeholder Semapa was up 0.08 at 9.32, after Economy Minister Manuel Pinho said the EU is this week expected to approve a funding package for one of Portucel's plants.

Also in the pulp sector, Altri was up 0.01 or 0.18 pct at 5.46 after investment house Caixa BI said in a morning note that the presentation at the company's Celbi plant on Friday was positive. Celbi will invest 320 mln eur to expand capacity until 2011.

Jeronimo Martins was up 0.41 or 2.20 pct at 19.02, on slim trading, as the retailer gains after a last week's underperformance.

Infrastructure group Mota Engil was up 0.01 or 0.17 pct at 5.83 after BPI analysts said deemed 'positive' the government's decision to exempt biofuel producers from tax. Martifer, 50 pct-owned by Mota, is involved in biofuel production through its affiliate Biomart.

Blue chip EDP was flat at 3.85, declining from gains earlier in the session after Spanish paper La Gaceta de los Negocios reported that Sonatrach is seeking to acquire 25 pct of the company.

Among the fallers, heavyweight Portugal Telecom was down 0.06 or 0.59 pct at 10.16, as the company comfirmed it has set March 2 for an EGM for shareholders to vote on allowing Sonaecom SGPS to hold more than 10 pct of voting rights in the company.

Dealers had thought that the removal of voting rights might apply to other potential bidders for PT.

Sonaecom was 0.01 higher at 5.84.

luis.morais@thomson.com

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