The Bank of Portugal (BdP) has revealed today that shares of resident entities listed on the Portuguese stock exchange are predominantly held by non-resident entities.
By the end of April, non-resident investors in Portugal accounted for 75% of the total stock market capitalization value.
This proportion is below the levels recorded at the end of 2022 and 2019 (when the foreign-held share was 78%) but above the 2013 figure (which was 69%).
By the end of May, the market value of shares from 43 Portuguese companies listed on the stock exchange amounted to 67.8 billion euros, which is, according to the BdP, the highest value since December 2013.
During this period, four sectors accounted for 90% of the market value of shares from Portuguese companies listed on the Portuguese stock exchange. These sectors are ‘manufacturing industries,’ ‘electricity, gas and water,’ ‘trade and repair’ (these three sectors represent 74% of the value), and ‘financial and insurance activities’ (representing 16%).
Among these sectors, the market value of ‘financial and insurance activities’ experienced the most significant relative change over the past five years, rising from 3.5 billion euros in December 2019 to 10.6 billion euros in May 2025.
In the stock exchange, shares can be held by private individuals (known as retail investors) and other companies, banks, insurers, investment funds, and pension funds (known as institutional investors).
The main companies listed on the Portuguese stock exchange include Galp, Grupo EDP, BCP, and Jerónimo Martins.
The Bank of Portugal also released debt securities statistics today.
The total value of debt securities issued by entities in Portugal at the end of May was approximately 314.5 billion euros, about 6.9 billion euros more than at the end of April.
This increase was attributed, according to the BdP, to the issuance of debt securities by the State and non-financial companies, which exceeded amortizations by 3.9 billion euros and 1.5 billion euros, respectively.
