BCN-21 Brazil stock market keeps breaking records under Bolsonaro

271

ZCZC

BCN-21

BRAZIL-STOCKS-ECONOMY

Brazil stock market keeps breaking records under Bolsonaro

SAO PAULO, Jan 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Brazil’s stock market hit a new record
Thursday, breaking through the 95,000-point level in a streak of gains racked
up since President Jair Bolsonaro took office at the beginning of the year.

The Sao Paulo exchange closed 1.01 percent up at 95,351 points, confirming
investors’ endorsement of Bolsonaro’s pro-business stewardship and promise to
reform Latin America’s biggest economy. So far this year the Bovespa index
has climbed 7.83 percent.

The buoyancy is largely thanks to Bolsonaro’s economy minister, Paulo
Guedes, a US-trained free-market advocate who is promising privatizations and
an overhaul of the country’s costly pension system.

The world’s political and financial elite will have an opportunity next
week to hear Bolsonaro and Guedes expound on their economic plans at the
annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Thursday’s trading in Sao Paulo saw commodities favored, with mining giant
Vale gaining 3.11 percent on the back of higher steel prices, and state-run
oil company Petrobras adding 1.77 percent.

Losers were led by Embraer, the Brazilian planemaker, which lost 4.05
percent the day after it lowered 2018 financial projections and said it was
unlikely to make a profit this year, in part because of costs associated with
it folding its commercial planes business into a joint venture with US group
Boeing.

The Brazilian currency, the real, lost ground against the US dollar,
declining 0.35 percent to 3.74 to the greenback.

BSS/AFP/HR/1010