Brazil's financial markets gained ground on Friday as traders were heartened by supportive US data and a lack of new shocking developments in a political scandal at home that has spooked investors.
The real firmed to close at 2.907 per dollar from Thursday's close of 2.933 per dollar as traders engaged in the usual end-month tug of war to set the Ptax rate which will be used for a dollar-denominated local debt expiration on Monday.
"There was a cease-fire in the political arena, but today, specifically, there was a bank that was responsible for 99.99 percent of the (dollar's) drop," said Hideaki Iha, a market analyst at Souza Barros brokerage in Sao Paulo.
The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange's benchmark Bovespa index gained 1.4 percent to close at 21,755 with gains across all sectors but lower than average volume. The index stands about 2 percent below where it began 2004.
Traders said investors were heartened early on by an upward revision to the US gross domestic product data.
A recovery in the US economy is often associated with the possibility of greater investment in emerging markets like Brazil.
They said they were also pleased to see that there were no more new political rows or new unsettling developments in a graft scandal involving a former presidential palace aide that has weighed on the market over the past two weeks.
Although foreign investors have invested heavily in the Bovespa in February, some players warned that it was too early to say whether the impact of the scandal had blown over as Congress had not sat this week due to the Carnival holidays.
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