Brazil stocks close firmer

Brazil's stocks rebounded on Friday after the worst one-day drop in two months in the previous session. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange rose 1.33 percent to 50,902.38 points, after dropping 2.07 percent on Thursday.
On the stock market, Oil Company Petrobras rose 1.96 percent to 45.23 reais, following oil prices higher. Petrobras is also slated to report first-quarter results after the close of the stock markets on Friday.
The company on Thursday agreed to sell two refineries in neighbouring Bolivia to state-controlled YPFB for $112 million. Analysts said Petrobras did well withdrawing from Bolivia's refining sector and hailed the deal even though Petrobras lost some money there.
Iron ore miner CVRD, the second most heavily weighted stock in the index, rose 1.2 percent to 74.79 reais. Investment bank UBS Pactual reiterated a "buy2" rating for CVRD in a report on Friday, expecting higher iron ore and nickel prices.
Brazil's real gained 0.2 percent to 2.019 per US dollar, closing at the same level as on Wednesday, when the currency hit its strongest mark since February 2001.
The central bank bought dollars on the spot market toward the end of the session, as it usually does to build up its currency reserves and tame the real's rise, but did not offer reverse currency swaps that tend to weaken the real.
Some traders said the central bank had managed to mop up excess dollars and the market was cautiously expecting more central bank interventions in the coming days.
"The central bank has bought a lot in the past few days. Nobody is going to sell too much. Only if there are huge inflows," said a foreign exchange manager with a big Brazilian bank, who did not want to be named.
Jose Roberto Carreira, head of forex at Novacao brokerage said investors preferred to reduce their positions to diminish risk exposure, which left the market "a bit slow".
Still, Brazilian markets took a boost from indicators in the United States that showed producer prices rose 0.7 percent in April. The so-called core rate, which strips out food and energy costs, was unchanged from March. The moderate inflation may help quell concern over the outlook for US interest rates hikes.