BRAZIL: Stocks End Higher As Ibovespa Gains 26.85% In 2017

(RTTNews) - Ibovespa, the benchmark stock market index in Brazil, ended the last trading session of the year with a 0.43% rise to 76,402.08 points amid a lack of negative political news and tracking stock markets abroad.

"Besides having no bad news and a calm scenario abroad, investors are still monitoring the rating downgrade issue. All those factors are priced in this week's rise," said Lerosa Investimentos' analyst Vitor Suzaki.

Eletrobras shares rose sharply [ELET3 +5.22% after the Brazilian government gave the company more time to gather support from stockholders to the sale of part of its subsidiaries.

Estácio stocks, however, had the poorest performance [ESTC3 -3.13%], amid profit-taking, said Suzaki.

The Ibovespa ends 2017 with a 26.85% gain, and below the 76,977.68 points record level reached in October.

The locally traded US dollar rose 0.06% in the spot market to R$ 3.3150 and fell 0.22% in the futures market to R$ 3.3080.

"The dollar was down all day long, but changed direction due to an technical adjustment," said Cleber Alessie, a foreign exchange trader at H.Commcor.