Brazil stocks plunge, trading halted in virus havoc

The Sao Paulo stock exchange plummeted 12.5 per cent shortly after opening Monday, triggering a suspension of trading for the fifth time in a week as the coronavirus pandemic continued to roil global markets. The automatic circuit breakers that halt trading in case of a sudden plunge in Latin America's biggest stock market have been getting a regular workout as the pandemic batters the Brazilian economy, which is closely tied to China's and highly sensitive to global market swings.

The market's Ibovespa index sank to its lowest level since December 2017. The latest rout in Sao Paulo followed the trend set in Asia and Europe, where traders' panic over the pandemic's economic impact only increased after the US Federal Reserve decided to slash interest rates to almost zero in a bid to boost growth.

Domestic concerns were also in play in Brazil, where analysts polled by the central bank lowered their 2020 economic growth forecast to 1.68 per cent, down from 2.23 per cent four weeks ago. The biggest losers were airlines Azul and Gol, which lost 27.6 per cent and 23.5 per cent, respectively, and travel company CVC, which lost 25 per cent.