Portuguese Stock Exchange

The BM&F Bovespa is a São Paulo-based stock exchange. It is the fourth largest stock exchange in the Americas in terms of market capitalization, behind NYSE, Nasdaq, and Toronto Stock exchange. It is also the thirteenth largest in the world in terms of market capitalization (see list of stock exchanges). OnMay 8, 2008, the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa) and the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange (BM&F) merged, creating the new BM&F Bovespa. The BM&F Bovespa is linked to all Brazilian stock exchanges, including Rio de Janeiro's Boverj (BVRJ), where only government bonds are traded. The benchmark indicator of Bovespa is the 50-stock Índice Bovespa. There were 450 companies traded at Bovespa as of April 30, 2008. On May 20, 2008 the iBovespa index reached its 10^thconsecutive record mark closing at 73,516 points, with a traded volume of USD 4.2 billion or BRL 7.4 billion.The exchange has a pre-market session from 09:45am to 10:00am, a normal trading session from 10:00am to 05:00pm and a post-market session from 05:30pm to 07:00pm on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.