Over the past few years, Brazil's equity market has recovered and become an important source of financing for Brazilian companies. The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa) had a market capitalisation of R $1.2tn in 2007, double the R $598.9bn of 2006. Net foreign investment in the Bovespa was R $1.13 billion, down from R $1.75 billion in 2006. The number of companies listed on Bovespa has been on the rise in recent years, from 368 in January 2004, 358 in January 2005, 382 at the end of 2005, 394 at the end of 2006, 448 at the end of 2007, and 450 in February 2008. Bovespa had 64 ipos in 2007, raising 55.5 billion reais.



BM&F is the only venue for derivatives trading in Brazil, and its business has expanded from traditional commodity and futures trading to financial futures and options trading, including spot contracts, forward contracts, futures contracts, options contracts and swaps contracts. Of this, options traded in January 2008 reached r $6.58 billion and exposure contracts exceeded 900,000 contracts.



BM&F listed on Bovespa in November 2007 and its IPO was the second largest of the year, raising R $5.98 billion in capital. In March 2008, THE Brazilian Commodity Futures Exchange (BM&F) and the Brazilian Stock Exchange (Bovespa) announced a merger to form a single entity called Nova Bolsa. The merger will make Brasilia the largest exchange in Latin America and the third largest in the world.