MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – The stock trading volume was almost double the 2016 daily average and the real rose 3.1 percent to 3.6280 per dollar, Bloomberg said on Thursday.
The Sao Paulo stock market's Ibovespa index of leading shares surged 6.6 percent closing at 50,913.79 on Thursday, the most since January 2009.
Earlier in the day, a Brazilian court blocked former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's appointment as Rousseff's chief of staff.
Brazilian prosecutors filed corruption, money laundering and fraud charges against Lula earlier this month. On Thursday morning, the former president was sworn in as Rousseff's chief of staff at the presidential palace. The move triggered protests in Sao Paulo and the capital Brasilia. Opponents of Rousseff and Lula claimed that the appointment aims to shield Lula from prosecution for corruption.
The court also released a taped phone conversation between Rousseff and Lula, in which the president tells Lula to make use of his new position if necessary.
The government is now appealing the court decision blocking Lula’s appointment as Rousseff’s chief of staff.
Rousseff has been facing a wave of public discontent over Brazil’s struggling economy and a major corruption scandal in the state-owned company Petrobras.
