© Reuters. The Sao Paulo stock market loses 0.77% and reaches its annual minimum
Sao Paulo, Mar 22 (.).- The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange fell 0.77% this Wednesday and its index, a reference for the parquet, closed with 100,220 basis points, reaching its lowest level of the year, after the new rise in prices. interest rates in the United States.
The Brazilian circle settled in the red with the comments of the president of the US Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, after increasing the rates by 0.25 points to place them in a range between 4.75% and 5%.
Financial agents are also awaiting the decision made today by the Central Bank of Brazil, amid pressure from the Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to lower the reference interest rate, currently at 13.75% per year. .
The market expects, however, that the issuing body will maintain the rates, contrary to the president, who considers this percentage unjustifiable, which in his opinion is hindering the economic growth that he promised when he came to power on January 1.
Among the most bearish values are the meat company BRF and the fuel distributor Vibra, whose shares fell 6.8% and 6.5%, respectively.
On the contrary, the titles of the construction companies MRV and Eztec advanced, with increases of 4.60% for each company.
The most traded titles were the ordinary ones of the mining company Vale (-1.2%) and the preferred ones of the state oil company Petrobras (NYSE:) (-0.3%).
The volume traded during the session exceeded 20,000 million reais (about 3,800 million dollars), in almost 3.3 million operations, according to preliminary results released at the close.
