Brazilian trading is halted as markets plunge after Lula beats Flávio, son of jailed ex-president Jair Bolsonaro
Flávio Bolsonaro reacts to his defeat in the Brazilian presidential election, in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured 51.7 per cent of the vote after a Supreme Court ruling extended voting hours in Bahia.Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving his sentence under house arrest, lost to Lula da Silva in 2022 — no candidate trailing after a Brazilian first round has ever won a runoff.
Brazil's Bovespa index plunged 10% at the open, triggering the country's first trading halt since March 2020. The real shed nearly 12% against the dollar, while a US fund tracking Brazilian shares lost as much as 26%. Markets had priced in a victory for Flávio Bolsonaro on the back of his fiscal austerity pledges. The winner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 80, took 51.79% of the vote.
Lula is the first Brazilian politician to advance from a first-round defeat to win a runoff.
Flávio Bolsonaro is seeking to have the outcome overturned, pointing to the two-hour extension to voting hours.
BTG Pactual's Jerson Zanlorenzi called the result 'a tsunami that will hit all Brazilian assets'.