Brazil stocks close up nearly 10pc

• Led by oil and airline stocks, which had been among the biggest losers in recent days, Brazil's Ibovespa index rebounded after falling 5.22 percent Monday.

SAO PAULO: The Sao Paulo stock exchange closed up 9.69 percent Tuesday, following world markets higher on optimism about plans to fight the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Led by oil and airline stocks, which had been among the biggest losers in recent days, Brazil's Ibovespa index rebounded after falling 5.22 percent Monday.

State-run oil company Petrobras closed up 16 percent, while airlines Gol and Azul closed up 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

"It's still too early to draw any conclusions, but we are seeing less volatility" than last week, said trading analyst Thiago Salomao of brokerage firm Rico Investimentos.

The Brazilian real strengthened 1.1 percent, to 5.08 to the dollar.

Global markets got a boost from news the US Federal Reserve has launched an unprecedented plan to buy unlimited amounts of Treasury bonds and extend loans to small and medium businesses hit hard by the pandemic.

Still, the Sao Paulo stock exchange, Latin America's biggest, has lost more than 40 percent since it hit its all-time high on January 23, the day the spreading outbreak led Chinese authorities to impose a quarantine on the city of Wuhan, its epicenter.