Sao Paulo Stock Exchange

About The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange

Founded in 1890, the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, also known as the BM&F Bovespa (BVSP), is the largest stock exchange found throughout Latin America, accounting for nearly 70% of trades throughout the region. The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange was originally linked to state finance departments before switching over in 1960s to become more institutional. The BVSP has a very technologically advanced infrastructure, and presently, laws in Brazil allow the exchange to trade stocks, futures, call and put options and debentures with all publicly-held companies registered with the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission. As of 2007, the stock exchange has demutualized and become for-profit. At the end of 2010, it had a market capitalization of US $1.54 trillion, and in April of 2008 almost 400 countries traded at the San Paulo stock exchange, making it one of the most traded at markets in the current times.

Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Hours

The BVSP has pre-market sessions from 09:45am to 10:00am Brazilian time for the input of orders which will then be theoretically priced, but the continuous trading session begins at 10:00am and ends at 5:00pm, with a five minute closing call for shares made up those that are in the BVSP’s indexes going from 4:55pm to 5:00pm. After market trading begins at 5:45pm and goes until 7:00pm.

Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Holidays

The Sao Paulo exchange celebrates a number of holidays, most more familiar to natives of Brazil or other Latin American countries. It is closed for these holidays and no trading goes on. A list of these holidays for the 2011 schedule is as follows:

New Year’s Day-January 3rd
Carnival- March 7th-8th
Tiradentes- April 21st
Good Friday- April 22nd
Labor Day- May 1st
Corpus Christ- June 23rd
Independence Day- September 7th
Our Lady of Aparecida- October 12th
All Souls Day- November 2nd
Proclamation of Republic- November 15th
Zumbi dos Palmares- November 20th
Christmas- December 25th