Brazil's stocks rose on Friday, after three days of losses, as bargain hunters bought shares of Petrobras and other companies that had tumbled in the previous sessions. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange firmed 0.8 percent to 57,506 points, snapping a three-day slump that pushed the index lower by 8.3 percent.
State-controlled oil company Petrobras, the country's most actively traded stock, rose 1.3 percent to 71.80 reais, snapping six days of losses that had brought the stock's price down by nearly 17 percent. Vale, the iron ore miner formerly known as CVRD, rose 2.6 percent to 46.87 reais, tracking gains in prices of copper, nickel and other industrial metals.
Brazil's currency, the real, firmed 0.06 percent versus the US dollar to 1.786. The currency had earlier traded as strong as 1.774 per dollar, but pared gains on concerns a US fiscal stimulus package would not be enough to forestall a recession. President George W. Bush on Friday called for a package of tax cuts and other measures totalling up to $150 billion to help boost the US economy.
Interest-rate futures fell on the BM&F commodities and futures exchange in Sao Paulo after an inflation gauge, the IGP-10 wholesale inflation index, slowed to 1.02 percent in January from 1.59 percent in December.