RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo stock exchange lost 0.66% this Tuesday and its Ibovespa index, the benchmark of the trading floor, closed at 122,202 points, weighed down by high inflation and the turbulent political climate in Brazil.
The São Paulo stock exchange has been navigating in the midst of enormous volatility since the beginning of the week, generated by the economic and political scenario.
On the one hand, inflation continues to soar, and in July alone climbed 0.96%, the highest result for that month since 2002, raising the year-on-year rate to 8.99%.
The rise in prices has led the Central Bank to initiate a restrictive monetary cycle, raising official interest rates at 5.25% per annum.
In the final minutes of its last meeting, released on Tuesday, the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) of the Central Bank adopted a harsher discourse. It indicated that it could further accelerate the increase in the basic interest rate in the coming months.
On the other hand, the political scenario lives moments of tension with the institutional conflict installed between President Jair Bolsonaro and the Judiciary.
On Tuesday, the president was strongly criticized for receiving a small military parade, which the opposition interpreted as a demonstration of power by the ultra-right leader with intimidating purposes.
The US dollar depreciated by 0.96% against the real and closed at R$5.19 for purchase and sale at the Brazilian commercial exchange rate in the currency market.
The São Paulo stock exchange lost 816 units from its previous day total. The volume traded reached R$26.857 (US$5.175) billion, in a total of 3,820,650 financial operations.
The stocks that lost the most on Tuesday were the shopping mall operator Iguatemi (-3.74%), the electricity company Eneva (-3.35%), and the highway concessionaire CCR (-2.89%).
On the gains side, the shares of the oil company PetroRio (6.48%), the aeronautical company Embraer (3.27%), and the steel company Usiminas (2.70%) all rose.
The most traded shares were Petrobras preferred shares (0.32%) and the ordinary shares of mining giant Vale (0.96%).