Brazilian stocks closed lower on Friday on investor caution prompted by falls in overseas markets, after disappointing results from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co pressured US banking stocks on worries about sector results. The benchmark Bovespa index lost 1.18 percent to 68,978.30, its lowest close of the year to date.
The J.P. Morgan results also weighed down global markets, helping safe havens such as the US dollar, which gained against a basket of major currencies Brazil's currency, the real, weakened 0.4 percent to 1.773 per dollar. The stronger dollar touched commodities, with the Reuters-Jefferies index slipping 1.06 percent.
Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore and the second most heavily weighted stock in the index, dropped 0.52 percent to 46.14 reais. The company said on Friday that it is in talks to buy Bunge's 42.3 percent stake in fertiliser company Fosfertil. Shares of Fosfertil, which is not part of the Bovespa index, jumped 4.7 percent to 21.15 reais.
Mining company MMX, which had surged almost 14 percent in the first four days of this week on expectations of higher iron ore prices this year, slumped 5.75 percent to 14.60 reais. Shares of Brasil Telecom posted the largest percentage loss of the Bovespa index, plunging 10.8 percent to 14.89 reais after parent company is suspended stock purchases from minority investors in the wake of mounting lawsuit losses.
State-controlled energy company Petrobras limited losses, closing up 0.22 percent to 35.75 reais. The company reported on Thursday that its reserves rose 9 percent under US Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines. Yields on Brazilian interest rate futures contracts broadly dipped, after having ticked higher the previous session.
The yield on the contract due January 2011 edged down to 10.27 percent from 10.33 percent. The yield on the contract due January 2012 dipped to 11.71 percent from 11.77 percent. Both were among the most active contracts of the day. Investors use the contracts to bet on trends in the country's benchmark interest rate, the Selic, currently at a record-low 8.75 percent.