RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian stocks on Monday jumped to a 19-month high as a recent opinion poll showed President Dilma Rousseff, seen by many investors as too interventionist, would lose re-election in a likely second-round vote in October's presidential elections.
Other Latin American equity and currency markets were little changed, with Mexican stocks slightly on the red, as trading slowed in the region with Wall Street closed due to the US Labor Day holiday.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index gained more than 1 percent to nearly 62,000 points, its highest level since January 2013.
After a survey released late on Friday showed environmentalist Marina Silva had widened her lead over Rousseff to 10 percentage points in an expected runoff.
Silva has been winning over investors with a market-friendly economic platform, despite concerns that, if elected, she would lack a coalition wide enough to pass necessary legislation through Congress.
Shares of state-own oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA , which under Rousseff is forced to sell fuels at a loss in the domestic market, rallied more than 4 percent. Petrobras, as the company is known, has seen the price of its stock more than double since March.
Shares of Brazilian banks such as Banco do Brasil , Bradesco and Itau Unibanco also posted strong gains as analysts considered Silva's program for the banking sector as "generally positive"
As it mentioned public banks should reduce their market share in lending to create room for private banks to expand portfolios.
In Mexico, the benchmark IPC stock index dropped 0.3 percent, weighed down by shares of miner and railroad operator Grupo Mexico, which sank 1.8 percent as prosecutors investigated a toxic spill from one of its mines.
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