Brazil sells $1.25 bln in 2nd currency swap auction

Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:40am EST
 
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SAO PAULO, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Brazil's central bank sold about $1.25 billion in a second auction of currency swap contracts on Wednesday, rolling over less than half the amount of a similar batch of securities coming due next month.

The bank sold 25,200 of 52,000 contracts on offer in the auction, extending the maturity of securities due on Dec. 1. It said it would survey market participants on Friday to see if there is enough demand to try and roll over the remaining amount of swaps coming due.

Earlier on Wednesday, the bank sold 224 million of swaps in a separate auction.

Brazil's currency, the real BRBY, was trading more than 2 percent weaker at 2.382 per dollar shortly after the second auction.

Central bank President Henrique Meirelles said on Monday the bank has already sold about $30 billion of swaps as the turmoil in global markets deepened. (Reporting by Fabio Gehrke; Writing by Todd Benson; Editing by Tom Hals)

 
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