(Bloomberg) -- Exchange-traded funds focused on Brazil attracted their biggest inflows yesterday in 10 months following a 15% rally in the country’s Ibovespa benchmark index from a five-year low in March.
The U.S.-based iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF attracted $212 million yesterday while the Brazil-based iShares Ibovespa lured 162 million reais ($72.7 million), data compiled by Bloomberg show. On a combined basis, the two funds had suffered $514 million of outflows in the year to date.
Investors piled back into Latin America’s largest economy as stocks recovered after tumbling earlier this year on slowing growth in China, Brazil’s biggest trading partner, and government policies that fanned inflation and failed to jumpstart growth. Shares of state-controlled companies have surged since then as polls showed President Dilma Rousseff is losing support before October elections.
“Emerging markets have been not loved, and at some point people are going to have to realize they are the source of growth,” Wayne Lin, a money manager at Baltimore-based Legg Mason Inc., which oversees $702 billion, said by phone. “ETFs are an easy way to get in and out.”
The benchmark stock index entered a bear market March 14 after falling 20% from its October high. The gauge has since gained as companies including state-run utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA and government-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA rebounded.
Brazil is forecast to grow 1.63% this year while inflation is expected to exceed 6.5%, the upper bound of the
