Brazil shares higher at close of trade; Bovespa up 0.41%

Investing.com – Brazil equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials , Real Estate and Electric Power sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sao Paulo, the Bovespa rose 0.41%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Bovespa were Banco Bradesco SA Pref (SA: BBDC4 ), which rose 5.65% or 2.42 points to trade at 45.26 at the close. Via Varejo SA (SA: VVAR3 ) added 3.99% or 0.23 points to end at 6.00 and B2W Cia Digital (SA: BTOW3 ) was up 3.91% or 1.88 points to 50.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Estacio Participacoes SA (SA: ESTC3 ), which lost 4.31% or 1.40 points to trade at 31.10 in late trade. Kroton Educacional SA (SA: KROT3 ) declined 4.27% or 0.51 points to end at 11.43 and Gerdau SA Pref (SA: GGBR4 ) shed 3.10% or 0.50 points to 15.65.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 243 to 199 and 36 ended unchanged on the BM&FBovespa Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Brazil Etf Volatility , which measures the implied volatility of Bovespa options, was down 1.83% to 31.60.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.76% or 9.95 to $1325.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.48% or 0.26 to hit $53.97 a barrel, while the March US coffee C contract rose 3.92% or 4.00 to trade at $106.10 .

USD/BRL was down 1.06% to 3.6459, while EUR/BRL fell 1.35% to 4.1722.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 95.312.