Brazilian stocks broke a five-day losing streak on Friday, as a rebound on Wall Street inspired late buying and lifted some of the gloom caused by weak commodity prices and global recession worries. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange ended 1.03 percent higher at 51,939.6 points, stopping a rout that had wiped nearly 10 percent off the market value.
The index had been down 2.5 percent on Friday and was heading for a sixth straight loss before a rebound in US bank shares offset some fears stemming from a bleak jobs report and helped US stocks close higher. "Today, much like yesterday, we are at the mercy of the markets abroad," said Hamilton Moreira, senior investment analyst at BB Investments.
Data earlier on Friday showed the US jobless rate rose to a five-year high, pushing Wall Street lower and adding pressure on Brazilian markets. The recent slump in Brazil, where more than half of the index is linked to the metals and mining sector, followed a decline of 5 percent in copper prices and a sharp drop in crude oil prices.
"We don't see clear signs of a recovery, even though there are some good bargain among Brazilian firms now," said Bruno Lamb at m2 Investments. "They are not going to rebound until we see better investment inflows, which will only come when markets calm down."
Brazil's real ended little changed at 1.716 per US dollar after tumbling below 1.74 per US dollar in early trade. State-run oil firm Perturbs ended 1.3 percent up at 31.86 reads, despite a 1.5 percent slide in crude prices to five-month lows.
Mining company Vale rose 1.66 percent to 36.10 reads, after earlier being weighed down by a slump in copper prices on concerns about weak demand for metals and higher inventories.
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