Brazil’s stock exchange, the Bovespa, started the week in a positive note after three falls in a row in the preceding days. Vale and Petrobras had an important role in the recovery.
The Ibovespa, the Bovespa index (Bovespa) closed this Monday with a high of 0.62%, at 63,153.09 points. The market has lost 3.44% this month 7.92% since the beginning of the year.
Trading volume was 8.422 billion reais, inflated by the expiration of 2.2 billion reais of stock options.
The trade balance began February with a negative result, informed the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. The deficit was US$ 172 million in the five working days of the period. Exports totaled US$ 2.928 billion and imports reached US$ 3.1 billion.
From January to the first week of February this year, the balance is also negative, US$ 338 million, with exports of US$ 14.233 billion and imports of US$ 14.571 billion. In the same period in 2009 there was also a deficit, though much smaller: US$ 58 million.
The commercial deficit is the result of imports, stimulated by the depreciation of the dollar against the Brazilian real.
However, the forecast of analysts in the financial sector is that the trade balance should end the year with a surplus of US$ 10 billion. In 2009, the surplus was US$ 25.348 billion.
