Brazil stocks inch down on quiet day; real slips
(Updates to close)
By Luciana Lopez
SAO PAULO, July 3 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks ended slightly lower on Friday after a session of light, choppy trading.
The combination of a holiday in the United States which closed markets there and investor caution about the global economy made for a day of little movement.
"Today it's more about adjusting positions," said Januario Hostin Jr., an analyst with Leme Investimentos.
The benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP slid 0.18 percent to end at 50,934.69.
The Bovespa index lost 1 percent on Thursday and the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slid 2.6 percent as gloomy U.S. jobs data spooked already nervous investors. A global economic recovery, the data suggested, might not be imminent after all.
Brazilian equities often shadow U.S. markets, which investors use to gauge international sentiment.
Yet in Brazil, tentative green shoots emerged on Thursday, with industrial production up in May and inflation in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, slowing from the previous month. New car sales also reached an all-time high in June, buoyed by a tax break introduced in December.
The foreign exchange market was equally sluggish, with Brazil's currency, the real (BRBY), practically stable, shaving off a mere 0.05 percent against the U.S. dollar to 1.953 reais to the dollar.
Major countries should support the dollar as the main international currency, a Japanese official told Reuters on Friday. But China wants a debate on a new global reserve currency when Group of Eight leaders meet with the G5 emerging economies next week in Italy, G8 sources told Reuters. For more see [ID:nT294215].
Commodities lost ground as well, with oil CLc1 down 1.65 percent to $65.63 a barrel.
Shares of state-controlled energy company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) slipped 0.74 percent to 31.01 reais. A company official told Reuters on Friday Petrobras's exploration of an Iranian block will likely yield disappointing results. See [ID:nN03171107].
Vale (VALE5.SA), the world's largest iron-ore producer, also retreated, dropping 0.43 percent to 29.92 reais.
Petrobras and Vale have the heaviest weighting in the Bovespa index.
YIELDS
Yields on Brazilian interest rate futures contracts <0#DIJ:> largely fell. A slowdown in Sao Paulo consumer price increases in June fueled speculation that, with inflationary pressures low, the Brazilian central bank still has room to chip away at the benchmark interest rate, the Selic, which is already at a record low of 9.25 percent.
The yield on the contract due January 2011 DIJF1, among the most highly-traded of the day, declined to 9.89 percent from 9.92 percent. (Reporting by Luciana F. Lopez; Editing by James Dalgleish)
