Brazil Stock Market Index IBOVESPA Drops Heavily in Week Marked by Coronavirus

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The week was short for the IBOVESPA, but the drops were large. The return to trading on Ash Wednesday occurred at the height of renewed concern about the coronavirus spreading outside China.

Over the week, the IBOVESPA dropped by a cumulative 10.6 percent. The accumulated drop was 8.4 percent in February – the highest monthly drop since May 2018. The IBOVESPA closed out Friday, February 28th, up by 1.15 percent after starting the day in decline, but it was not enough to mitigate the poor result of the previous days.

Economática consulting firm listed which stocks dropped the most in the IBOVESPA this week. Potential restrictions on people’s travel and flight cancellations resulted in two major drops in the week for airlines, Gol with 24 percent and Azul with 20 percent (see list below).

Although the week saw more intense declines only three stocks closed up among the main B3 components. During balance season, the coronavirus overshadowed some of the positive fourth-quarter results released by traded companies.

Brazilian losses follow the foreign trend, where the markets had their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. The main indices, such as the American S&P 500 and the European STOXX 600, saw cumulative drops of more than ten percent during the week. More than US$5 trillion was lost in the markets – the equivalent of Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the third-largest economy in the world.

The main concern is that the coronavirus will become a global pandemic. There are now more than 6,000 cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus outside Chinese territory, according to Saturday’s figures. In all, there are over 86,000 cases and more than 2,900 deaths, the majority of which in China.

In this scenario, in addition to the airlines, Brazilian exporting companies are also among the most affected, such as meat packers Marfrig and JBS, mining company Vale and oil company Petrobras – all with shares dropping by over ten percent last week. Below, check which IBOVESPA stocks dropped more than ten percent between February 26th and 28th and the cumulative drop for each.

The stocks that dropped the most in the week

Gol (GOLL4) -24.31 percent

Azul (AZUL4) -20.14 percent

Via Varejo (VVAR3) -17,01 percent

CVC Brasil (CVCB3) -16.68 percent

Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSNA3) -14.85 percent

B2W Digital (BTOW3) -14.58 percent

Marfrig (MRFG3) -13.72 percent

Embraer (EMBR3) -13.20 percent

WEG (WEGE3) -13.06 percent

Petrobras preferred (PETR4) -13.04 percent

JBS (JBSS3) -12.63 percent

Qualicorp (QUAL3) -12.61 percent

Metalúrgica Gerdau (GOAU4) -12.44 percent

Braskem (BRKM5) -12.12 percent

Smiles Fidelidade (SMLS3) -12.00 percent

Petrobras ordinary (PETR3) -11.99 percent

Cyrela (CYRE3) -11.88 percent

Klabin (KLBN11) -11.78 percent

Vale (VALE3) -11.61 percent

Rumo (RAIL3) -11.59 percent

Bradespar (BRAP4) -11.48 percent

Gerdau S.A. (GGBR4) -11.36 percent

Perdigão (BRFS3) -10.94 percent

Usiminas (USIM5) -10.91 percent

Iguatemi (IGTA3) -10.60 percent

Sabesp (SBSP3) -10.54 percent

AMBEV (ABEV3) -10.52 percent

Magazine Luiza (MGLU3) -10.50 percent

Grupo Ultra (UGPA3) -10.34 percent

GPA (PCAR4) -10.10 percent

CCR (CCRO3) -10.03 percent

Source: Exame