Bovespa Stock Index Rises as Gerdau Rallies on Metal Price Gain

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Bovespa index climbed as Gerdau SA led Brazilian steelmakers higher amid a rise in metal prices.

Gerdau SA jumped the most in eight weeks. Iron-ore producer Vale SA contributed the most to the benchmark’s gain.

The Bovespa added 0.1 percent to 56,692.95 at 4:48 p.m. in Sao Paulo. Forty-six stocks advanced on the gauge while 23 fell. The Bloomberg Base Metals 3-Month Price Commodity Index rose 0.2 percent after reports showing purchases of new homes and consumer confidence jumped in the U.S. signaled a rebound in growth in the world’s largest economy.

“There are signs that things are getting better in the U.S., and that helps to push the Bovespa a bit higher,” Alvaro Bandeira, a partner at Orama Asset Management, said by phone from Rio de Janeiro.

Gerdau advanced 2.9 percent to 16.73 reais. Vale rose 0.9 percent to 34.59 reais.

The Bovespa earlier dropped as much as 1 percent on concern that Europe’s debt crisis will damp global growth.

The Bovespa has lost 10 percent from this year’s high on Jan. 3 while the MSCI BRIC Index of shares in Brazil, Russia, India and China slid 5.1 percent over the same period. Brazil’s benchmark equity gauge trades at 11.2 times analysts’ earnings estimates for the next four quarters, compared with 10.4 for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index of 21 developing nations’ equities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trading volume for stocks in Sao Paulo was 7.3 billion reais yesterday, compared with a daily average of 7.5 billion reais this year, according to data compiled by the exchange.

--Editors: Richard Richtmyer, Brendan Walsh