São Paulo – From July to August, the number of natural people investing in the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa) rose by 320 people, from 528,769 to 529,089 investors. Still in August, corporate investors totalled 22,927 accounts, which represented 4.15% of the total base.
According to figures by the Brazilian Settlement and Custody Company, most of the natural people investors are from São Paulo, with 48.8%, followed by the state of Rio de Janeiro, with 25.36% and Minas Gerais, with 5.82%.
The study also shows that most are male, 76.34%. However, the number of women with capital invested in the stock market is on the rise. In 2002, women represented 17.63% of the total natural-person investor base, reaching 24.62% at the end of last year. In August 2008, the total rose 22.7%.
Despite the number of natural-person investors in the stock market, the financial volume has been falling. In the first half of the year, the total invested was 6.2 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 3.7 billion), in July it dropped to 5.6 billion reals (US$ 3.4 billion) and in August, to 4.8 billion reals (US$ 2.9 billion).
The Bovespa index on Tuesday reached 54,404 points, which represented a reduction of 1.37% over the previous day. This information was supplied by the Commodities & Futures Exchange (BM&F)/Bovespa.
*Translated by Mark Ament
