Bendine is replacing Graça Foster; shares fall.

247 - The president of Banco do Brasil, Aldemir Bendine, will be the new president of Petrobras. He will replace Graça Foster, who resigned this week amid the crisis the company is facing due to the investigations of Operation Lava Jato by the Federal Police.

Bendine's name hadn't been speculated on in recent days; it was a sort of 'secret name' for the president. The bets were on Henrique Meirelles, former president of the Central Bank, Luciano Coutinho, of BNDES, Murilo Ferreira, of Vale, and Paulo Leme, president of Goldman Sachs in Brazil.

Rumors surrounding Bendine's name had been reported this morning by Reuters, which spoke with three government sources, and by journalist Cristiana Lôbo, from the G1 portal and Globonews. The decision was made today during a meeting of the Petrobras Board of Directors.

Shares of the oil company closed down 7% in reaction to the news, dragging down the Bovespa stock exchange, which ended the trading session with losses of 0,90%, after a week of gains. 

At the helm of Banco do Brasil since 2009, Bendine will have the autonomy to form his own team. According to Folha de S. Paulo, Ivan Monteiro, the current Vice President of Finance at Banco do Brasil, will be the new Chief Financial Officer of Petrobras, a strategic position to address the financial crisis the company is facing.

Below is a news article from the Infomoney portal regarding this:

Ibovespa has its best week of the year amidst Bendine at Petrobras and Greece. 

SÃO PAULO - Friday's 0,90% drop was far from enough to offset the Ibovespa's gains for the week. The benchmark closed the last five trading days up 4,02%, its best week of the year, despite turbulent news about Petrobras, but which also included a reduction in reserve requirements in China, renegotiations of Greek debt, and a surge in the dollar to its highest level in 10 years. The last time the index rose to this level was in November, between the 17th and 21st, when it climbed 8,33%.

Despite the surge, the index has not yet managed to break out of the 50.281-point and 46.528-point range (the Ibovespa's maximum and minimum points for the year). The first three days, which seemed poised to pull the benchmark out of the congestion zone, were interrupted by two consecutive days of decline. Check out how the beginning of February went:

Monday: The stock market started the week with a strong rise, driven by Petrobras, Vale, and the "blackout kit." Weak data from China, with the HSBC PMI below 50 points, showed a contraction in the industrial sector of the world's second-largest economy. This sparked speculation about stimulus measures in the Asian giant, which later announced a reduction in reserve requirements to increase liquidity in the economy. The Ibovespa rose 1,58% to 47.650 points. At the same time, the dollar rose 0,96%, quoted at R$ 2,7142 for buying and R$ 2,7152 for selling.

Tuesday

It was on Tuesday that news broke that Graça Foster would be leaving her position as CEO of Petrobras, causing the state-owned company's shares to rise 15%. The market priced in the departure of the president as the beginning of changes in the company's management. The Ibovespa closed nearly 3% higher, also reflecting the news of an interest rate cut in a country that doesn't usually appear in financial market headlines: Australia, which reduced its rate by 0,25 percentage points to 2,25% per year.

Wednesday

The benchmark's third consecutive rise was somewhat more modest than the previous ones. The reason was again the strong appreciation of Petrobras shares due to the announcement of the resignation of Graça Foster and five other directors. The Ibovespa rose 0,69%, while global stock markets fell after oil prices plummeted 9%. Meanwhile, the dollar surged 1,78%, reaching its highest value since March 23, 2005, when it closed at R$ 2,75. The US currency was quoted at R$ 2,7405 and R$ 2,7420.

Thursday

Thursday was a highly volatile day on the stock exchange, with Petrobras and Vale falling and Ambev and Banco do Brasil rising. American stock markets climbed, reflecting a more than 5% increase in the price of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil, while European markets closed near zero amid tensions surrounding the renegotiation of Greek debt. The ECB had just announced that it would not accept Greek bonds as collateral for loans, a strong response to Athens' efforts to renegotiate the terms of its bailout with creditors. The Ibovespa closed stable, with a slight decrease of 0,14%, at 49.233 points.

this friday

The Ibovespa fell this Friday (6) on a busy day in national and international markets, with the main news being the new board of directors of Petrobras, with Aldemir Bendine replacing Graça Foster, which disappointed the market that expected a name that could reduce government interference in the state-owned company.

In the morning, data from IBGE showed that inflation measured by the IPCA (Broad Consumer Price Index) accelerated to 1,24% in January, bringing the 12-month accumulated rate to 7,14%. On the other hand, the United States Department of Labor revealed an increase from 5,6% to 5,7% in the country's unemployment rate, but with the creation of 257 new jobs.

The Ibovespa closed down 0,90%, at 48.792 points. Meanwhile, the commercial dollar rose even further, reaching its highest level since 2005, with a positive variation of 1,3%, quoted at R$ 2,7767 for buying and R$ 2,7782 for selling. The financial volume traded in the session was R$ 7,327 billion.

According to João Pedro Brugger, an analyst at Leme Investimentos, the acceleration of the dollar's rise was a reflection of employment data in the world's largest economy, which, despite showing a higher unemployment rate, demonstrated the best three-month streak of job creation since 1997. This has increased bets on an interest rate hike in the US by the Federal Reserve – the US central bank. One of the data points the Fed considered before thinking about this monetary tightening was wages, which came in above market expectations. Despite this, João Pedro believes that what had the biggest impact was actually this excellent sequence of job increases.

The day also saw repercussions from changes in the Central Bank's team. Yesterday, the president of the Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, appointed Tony Volpon, from Nomura, to the directorship of international affairs, while Luiz Awazu Pereira assumes the directorship of economic policy, replacing Carlos Hamilton, who, after 5 years, leaves the position. The new director of economic policy, Awazu Pereira, voted against the unexpected 0,25 percentage point increase in the Selic rate in October, while Hamilton was among the 5 who voted in favor of the increase. Future interest rates for January 2016 fell 2 basis points to 12,84%.

Featured Stocks: Petrobras shares (PETR3, R$ 9,03, -6,52%; PETR4, R$ 9,12, -6,94%) fell after it was announced that the company's new CEO will be Aldemir Bendine, former president of Banco do Brasil (BBAS3, R$ 21,90, -3,91%). The Minister of Communications, Ricardo Berzoini, commented on the appointment, saying he does not believe Bendine will serve a "temporary mandate," given rumors that he will only be the company's interim president until the government finds a stronger candidate.

Another blue chip, Vale (VALE3, R$ 20,42, -0,15%; VALE5, R$ 17,81, +0,91%), saw its shares fluctuate between gains and losses after the "payrolls" announcement. The rise in the dollar benefits the mining company, which receives its revenue in US currency. It's worth remembering that Monday is the expiration date for stock options. Due to the Carnival holiday, the exercise of this type of derivative was moved from the third Monday of the month to Monday.

Those who also benefited from the rise in the dollar were the shares of exporting companies such as Embraer (EMBR3, R$ 24,68, +1,48%), Fibria (FIBR3, R$ 35,43, +2,90%) and Suzano (SUZB5, R$ 11,21, +0,27%).

The outlook for the electricity sector remains turbulent, and not surprisingly, stocks are falling along with the negative day unfolding on the stock exchange. "The scenario is difficult, and palliative measures such as extending daylight saving time confirm that the worst could happen: rationing," said analyst Flávio Conde. Shares of Cesp (CESP6, R$ 22,10, -2,47%), Cemig (CMIG4, R$ 11,47, -3,37%), Eletrobras (ELET3, R$ 5,15, +0,78%; ELET6, R$ 6,14, -1,13%) and Light (LIGT3, R$ 13,27, 0,00%) fell or closed unchanged.

Conde comments, however, that much of this scenario has already been priced into the market, but even so, the day an energy conservation incentive plan comes into effect, probably in an attempt to avoid rationing, the shares of electricity companies will fall even further. And if rationing comes later, they will fall again.