São Paulo – The US dollar closed this Thursday (14) up 2.64% to BRL 3.812 in Brazil. It was the sharpest spike in 13 months, prompted by news that the European Central Bank (ECB) will put an end to its bond purchase program at the end of this year.
The domestic market is also reacting to the end of the Brazilian Central Bank’s announcement that its USD 20 billion currency exchange swap offers, designed to curb the dollar hike over the last two weeks, will end tomorrow (15).The Central Bank held three swap auctions today. Since last Friday, those auctions amounted to USD 18 billion.
The main index of the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Ibovespa) closed down 0,97% to 71,421 points. Banks’ shares drove the drop, with Itaú preferred shares losing 3.55% and Bradesco’s sliding 4.06%.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
