After a turbulent day in the financial market, the dollar closed practically stable, after hitting R$6.20 throughout the session. The stock market rose almost 1%, on a day of slight recovery.
The commercial dollar ended this Tuesday (17) sold at R$6.096, with a small increase of 0.02%, renewing the nominal value record since the creation of the real. The price opened at R$6.14 and rose to R$6.20 at around 12:15 pm. The Central Bank (BC) intervened twice in the market, selling US$1.272 billion at around 9:30 am and another US$2.015 billion after the currency reached R$6.20.
After the interventions, the dollar spent much of the afternoon at around R$6.11, but began to fall with a statement by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, that he intends to start voting on the government’s spending cut package later this Tuesday. At the low of the day, around 3 pm, the price fell to R$6.06, but gained strength in the final minutes of trading, until closing slightly higher.
In the stock market, the day was less tense. The Ibovespa index, from B3, closed at 124,698, up 0.92%. The indicator partially recovered after three consecutive falls and also after reaching, on Monday, the lowest level since the end of June.
In December alone, the BC sold US$12.760 billion of international reserves, between spot auctions, in which the money definitively leaves the reserves, and line auctions, in which the monetary authority buys the dollars back after a few months. This was the biggest action by the BC in the exchange rate since March 2020, the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.
Regarding the spending cut package, Lira’s announcement and the trip of the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dario Durigan, to Congress this afternoon to negotiate the measures with deputies reduced instability in the financial market. This is because the chances of approval of expenditure review measures increased before the parliamentary recess, which begins on Friday (20).
*with information from Reuters
