Brazilian stocks decline

Brazilian stocks fell on Friday, tracking declines in US equity markets and after the central bank stepped into the foreign exchange market to buy dollars. The benchmark Bovespa index at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange lost 0.9 percent to close at 35,510.4 points and the real fell 0.3 percent to 2.20 per US dollar.
Declines in US equity markets also dragged down Brazilian stocks and the currency. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 0.9 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.55 percent after a profit warning from computer marker Dell Inc pushed down shares of technology companies.
In the stock market, Vivo Participacoes, Brazil's largest wireless phone company, fell 0.6 percent to close at 5.09 reais. The company said on Friday its second-quarter net loss widened to 493.1 million reais, compared with a loss of 252.7 million reais a year earlier. The company also said it expects to spend 1.08 billion reais to set up its new GSM mobile phone network.
Brazil's biggest meat processor Sadia fell 1.8 percent to close at 6 reais, after the company on Friday scrapped plans to take over rival Perdigao. Perdigao shares tumbled 5.4 percent to 27 reais.
Holders of 55.38 percent of Perdigao shares refused a sweetened take-over offer of 29 reais a share from Sadia. On Monday, Sadia offered 27.88 reais for each Perdigao share.
Steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional was among the biggest decliners at the Bovespa, falling 2.6 percent to 66.70 reais. The company on Thursday said its negotiations for a strategic alliance with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp of the United States are "in an advanced stage." The two companies have not disclosed what the strategic alliance would entail.
Net Servicos, the country's largest cable television provider, rose 0.9 percent to close at 1.16 reais after the company said second-quarter net income rose 5.9 percent to 21.8 million reais as it added more clients. The company said cable customers rose 14 percent to 1.66 million and the number of high -peed Internet clients more than doubled to 532,200 from 253,200 in the second quarter of 2005.
Low-cost airline Gol Linhas Aereas lost 2.5 percent to 63.80 reais. The company reported Thursday night its second-quarter net income rose 45 percent to 106.7 million reais.