Brazil’s stock exchange is down, and its currency has fallen against the dollar in the first hours of trading following the country’s volatile presidential race in which President Dilma Rousseff won re-election over her centrist, pro-business rival Aecio Neves.
The Brazilian real slipped over 4 percent in early morning trading Monday to $0.39. The Sao Paulo-based Bovespa stock exchange was down more than 6 percent.
Analysts had predicted the market would react negatively to a victory by Ms. Rousseff, under whom the once-booming economy has largely stalled. After four straight years of weak growth, the economy is now in technical recession.
Mr. Neves was overwhelmingly favoured by Brazil’s business community, who believed his market-friendly policies would help jumpstart growth.
Ms. Rousseff scored 51.6 percent of the votes, compared with Mr. Neves’ 48.4 percent.
