UPDATE 1-Portuguese stocks fall more than 5 percent
July 1st, 2008 | by admin |(Updates with details)
LISBON, July 1 (Reuters) - Lisbon’s PSI20 stockindex fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday, hitting its lowestlevel since the end of 2005 as traders said low liquidityaccentuated the declines.
“It is falling more than other markets because of lack ofdepth in the market, little liquidity,” said a trader. “Withouta doubt, there is also some stop-loss selling.”
At 1440 GMT, the PSI20 was 4.7 percent lower at 8483.08points, after earlier hitting a low of 8440.45 points.
Filipe Garcia, an analyst at Informacao de MercadosFinanceiros, said that after the PSI20 broke down through the8,700 level its next support would be at 8,150 points.
Lisbon’s market has been dragged down more sharply thanlarger European markets this year, in part because investors hadearned stronger gains in 2007.
In the year to date, the PSI20 is down 31 percent comparedwith gains of 16 percent in 2007. In neighbouring Spain, theIbex-35 .IBEX stock index is down 20 percent this year afteradvancing 7 percent last year.
All stocks in the PSI20 were down on Tuesday, with builderTeixeira Duarte (TDU.LS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) leading the decline with a slump of14.4 percent followed by paper and pulp company Altri (ALSS.LS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)which slid 13.4 percent. (Reporting by Axel Bugge and Ruben Bicho; Editing by DavidHolmes)
