Major Latin American equity markets finished lower Tuesday, weighed by declines in commodity prices and a downturn on Wall Street as financial sector fears continued to build.
Brazil's Bovespa fell 0.4% to 54,502.97, losing earlier gains. The benchmark index tumbled 3.3% on Monday as commodity prices slumped.
Shares of state-run oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR) managed to hold onto gains and finished up 0.9% on the heels of the company's report of its all-time highest quarterly profit. The company on Monday posted a 29% jump in second- quarter profit to 8.78 billion reals ($5.4 billion) from 6.8 billion reals, bolstered by higher fuel prices and output for crude and natural gas. Revenue climbed 30% to 54.6 billion reals.
"We expect Petrobras results to improve even further in the third quarter 2008 due to elevation in price of gasoline and diesel in Brazil as of May, besides expectation of production growth," wrote à gora oil and petrochemical analyst Luiz Otávio Broad in a note.
Petrobras shares moved off their highs of the session as crude-oil futures fell to their lowest level in more than three months, below $113 a barrel, pressured as Russia ordered an end to military operations in Georgia as well as by concerns over a deceleration in global oil demand.
Citigroup analysts Geoffrey Dennis and Jason Press on Tuesday said that a modest deceleration in global growth "could continue to exert some downward pressure on commodity prices, including for oil, but one that does not create an outright negative environment for equity markets.
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