RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo stock exchange fell by 2.03 % on Monday, weighed down by fearmongering of the Coronavirus Omicron variant, which also shook the currency market, with the dollar reaching its highest level since last March in Brazil.
The Ibovespa, the parquet’s benchmark index, closed at 105,019 points and, after losing 1.0 % last Friday, continues to be in a bad mood, in line with the rest of the international markets, including Wall Street.
Financial operators renewed their fears about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic due to the increase in the number of contagions in Europe, where some countries have once again adopted mobility restrictions to contain the omicron variant of the virus.
Brazil is experiencing a period of stability, with the lowest number of infections and deaths since April 2020. Still, there is growing concern about the new strain already being transmitted communally in São Paulo, the most populated city in Latin America.
This turbulence was also felt in the foreign exchange market. The US dollar appreciated by 1.00% and closed at 5.740 reais for purchase and 5.741 reais for sale, the highest level since March, in the Brazilian commercial exchange rate.
So far this year, the greenback has appreciated 10.6% against the Brazilian currency.
Nevertheless, the Sao Paulo stock exchange subtracted 2,180 units from its score in a session with a negotiated volume that exceeded 25,000 million reais (some 4,350 million dollars) in 3,825,234 financial operations.
The travel agency CVC Brazil (-8.8%) and the lodging portal Locaweb (-7.1%) recorded the most significant losses due to the uncertainty generated by the omicron, more transmissible than previous strains and already present in about a hundred countries.
It was also a bad day for the steel and mining sector, with falls for Compañía Siderúrgica Nacional (-6.9 %), Gerdau (-5.9 %), and the giant Vale (-1.1 %).
Among the few stocks that closed in the green were Minerva and JBS, which rebounded 1.2% and 1.4%, respectively.
The most traded shares on Monday were the preferred shares of the state-owned oil company Petrobras (-2.9%) and the common shares of Vale (-1.1%).fa