Stock exchange closes higher driven by Vale, and dollar ends stable day

After four sessions with negative performance, the Brazilian stock market closed higher this Wednesday (27), driven by increases in Vale and Petrobras. The day was also positive for American indices, which helped the local market.

“The index [Ibovespa] it began to operate in the negative field in the morning, but recovered around noon, as the market analyzes and consolidates understandings about companies’ results as they are being released in this earnings season for the fourth quarter of 2023”, says Felipe Pohren de Castro, partner at Matriz Capital.

The biggest rises of the day were from Renner, Raízen and Grupo Casas Bahia, which rose 5.42%, 5.23% and 4.67%, respectively. Vale, the company with the largest weight on the Ibovespa, advanced more than 1%.

As a result, the Ibovespa advanced 0.65%, ending the day at 127,690 points.

In exchange, the dollar closed practically stable, while investors await new inflation data in the United States that should be released at the end of the week. The American currency had a negative fluctuation of 0.06%, ending the session quoted at R$4.979.

On a day with a relatively empty agenda in Brazil and abroad, the dollar once again fluctuated within very narrow margins. At the minimum exchange rate of the day, at 9:01 am, the spot currency reached R$4.9719 (-0.24%) and, at its maximum, at 10:16 am, it reached R$4.9949 (+0.22%).

An operator interviewed by Reuters stated that investors continue to wait for news that could, in fact, serve as a reason to change positions in the US currency. According to him, everyone is “waiting for lightning to strike”.

For Lais Costa, an analyst at Empiricus Research, no relevant news really emerged that would change the scenario for the exchange rate.

“The flow is not occurring due to structural changes in the scenario – it is more due to adjustment of positions. Something really relevant would have to emerge for the dollar to move around here”, he commented.

As Thursday is the last working day of March, the next session will be the dispute over Ptax at the end of the month – and quarter. Normally, volatility tends to increase in sessions like this, but market professionals reinforced that, without impactful news, the dispute between longs and shorts may not be as intense.

Ptax is an exchange rate calculated by the Central Bank based on spot market quotations and which serves as a reference for the settlement of futures contracts.

At the end of each month, financial agents usually try to direct it to levels that are more convenient for their positions, whether they are purchased (in the direction of rising prices) or sold in dollars (in the downward direction). At the end of quarters, the importance of Ptax is even greater.

As a backdrop to the dispute this Thursday, a series of indicators will be released in Brazil: the IBGE unemployment rate in February and the Central Bank’s GDP and balance of payments projections in the Inflation Report, among others. Also noteworthy is the press conference by the president of the BC, Roberto Campos Neto, on the Inflation Report. (FOLHAPRESS)

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