Petrobras Results in Focus as Ibovespa Futures Join Global Gain

Petrobras Results in Focus as Ibovespa Futures Join Global Gain

By Julia Leite/Bloomberg

9:48 AM BRT
May 15, 2015

Ibovespa futures joined gains in global shares as investors awaited Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s first-quarter earnings.

Petrobras, embroiled in a corruption scandal that stumped executives and accountants for months as they struggled to tally costs related to graft, will probably report a 5 percent drop in sales to 77.62 billion reais ($25.8 billion), according to the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company said April 22 that it lost a record 21.6 billion reais in 2014 as it released long-delayed results.

As Chief Executive Officer Aldemir Bendine seeks to contain damage from a scandal — a decade of alleged kickbacks, bribes and inflated construction contracts — he’s also grappling with a plunge in oil prices. The company has opted not to pay dividends to preserve cash and reduced its 2016 investment budget by 37 percent to $25 billion.

Ibovespa futures due in June added less than 0.1 percent to 57,240 at 9:48 a.m. in Sao Paulo. Stocks rose in Europe and Asia while bonds gained, stabilizing after a debt-market selloff earlier this week. American depositary receipts of Petrobras were little changed at $9.95 in early New York trading.

Fibria SA may move after saying it will invest 7.7 billion reais in a new pulp plant in Brazil. Exchange operator BM&FBovespa SA and real-estate company Cyrela Brazil Realty SA may be active after posting net income that missed estimates.

Trading volume of equities in Sao Paulo was 6.51 billion reais ($2.17 billion) on Thursday, according to the exchange. That compares with a daily average of 6.98 billion reais this year.