Stocks Fall as Options Expire
May 01, 2011
The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange's Bovespa Index dropped 607 to 62921, after rising 44 Friday. The Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange fell 127 to 23188. Of the 50 stocks making up the Bovespa Index, 13 rose, 27 fell, 8 were unchanged and 2 were untraded. Volume was valued at 1.58 billion reals, up from 510 million reals Friday; volume usually is higher in a session in which options expire. The market traded lower throughout most of the session, with the index reaching a low of 1.4% below opening level before recovering. Telebras, Brazil's flagship blue chip with a weighting of more than 40% on Sao Paulo's Bovespa index, closed the day at 75.60 reals per thousand shares and accounted for 71.2% of traded volume.
