Brazil’s Stocks Fall as Political Scandal Returns to Spotlight
- Newspaper reports top minister plotted to end corruption probe
- State-controlled Petrobras contributes most to Ibovespa’s drop
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The Ibovespa fell to the lowest in six weeks after a report implicated a minister of the two-week old government in the country’s biggest corruption scandal.
Newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported it had access to recordings in which Planning Minister Romero Juca and a former executive linked to state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA discussed how to prevent the graft probe dubbed Carwash from proceeding. Brazil’s benchmark equity index gained 13 percent this year on speculation that the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff would usher in a new government able to break the country’s political paralysis and take measures to support growth. Rousseff was forced to temporarily step down this month, making Michel Temer acting president.