Ibovespa, the benchmark stock market index in Brazil, fell 0.1% to 74,518.79 points Wednesday, cutting losses in the late afternoon as investors awaited the official announcement of changes to the pension reform bill. They also reacted to the Federal Reserve meeting minutes, in which the monetary authority’s board members showed some concern with the weak inflation.
During the afternoon, the Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said that the revised version of the pension reform bill should save around R$ 480 billion in public expenditures in the next decade – or 60% of the R$ 800 billion cut expected in the original version of the legislation. However, investors were not disappointed as they already expected the new draft to be a “micro-reform.”
“The market has already established the idea that there will be a mini-reform,” said Leonardo Ramos, a partner at DNAinvest. For him, there is “cautious optimism” with the handling of the draft, since the bill is still expected to be voted by the end of the year in the House of Representatives.
Investors, however, became worried throughout the day over conflicting rumors about changes to president Michel Temer’s cabinet.
The locally traded U.S. dollar closed down for the fourth trading session in a row, (-0.52%) at R$ 3.235, in a scenario of greater risk appetite abroad and optimism regarding the approval of the pension reform bill in Brazil. That was the lowest greenback’s closing level in almost a month since on October 23 it had closed at R$ 3.232.
On Thursday, the Thanksgiving holiday that will close the U.S. markets is expected to affect the volume of operations in the Brazilian market adversely.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com
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