Despite Pharol, the former Portugal Telecom, losing 68% of its value, Portugal’s PSI 20 stock index was up 11% over the past year due to gains by some of the country’s big name companies.
Jerónimo Martins, EDP and Galp Energia boosted the overall stock climb, with a stunning performance by Altri, up 92%, ensuring double digit growth overall.
Food retailer Jerónimo Martins was up 43%, NOS stock increased by 38%, EDP Renováveis was up 34% and Galp Energia climbed 27% despite the collapse in the Brent crude oil price of 35%.
Among the losers were constructor Teixeira Duarte (-56%), Impresa (-39%), BCP (-33%) and constructor Mota-Engil down 27%.
Last year, the main stock market indicator Lisbon had lost almost 27%. This year's PSI20 recovers 11% of lost shareholder value.
Last year’s close of 4,798 points was among the worst performers globally, down 27% so the 11% rise through 2015 makes up some ground for long-term investors.
The smart money was in Venezuela's stock market which grew an astounding 321.23%, followed by Jamaica (106.51%), Latvia (45.66%), Hungary (44.56%), Denmark (35.95%), Malta (33.02%), Ireland (31.24%), Slovakia (31.11%) and Japan’s Topix index up 21.32% and Nikkei 225 up 20.37%.
If you had your money in the UK's FTSE 100 last year you would be 4.9% worse off that when you started as London investors missed out on gains shown by rival exchanges in Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai - and Caracas of course.
