July 28, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17,1423

SAO PAULO, July 27: Brazil’s real hit its new all-time low close on Friday after a fresh election poll showed the market’s favourite candidate for president losing ground and no news emerged on a possible IMF loan to soothe pre-election worries, traders said.

The real ended at 3.015 per dollar, its fifth straight record low close, down from 2.995 at Thursday’s finish. Earlier in the day it reached its weakest intraday level of 3.031 per dollar. Introduced in 1994, the real has lost 4.9 per cent this week and 23.2 per cent so far this year.

Traders had been hoping for a fresh loan deal for Brazil with the International Monetary Fund, but President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said after the foreign exchange market closed he knew nothing of any talks with the fund.

That and Finance Minister Pedro Malan’s denial of any new international help for Brazil, sent the stock market, which continued trading, into a tailspin.

With two opposition candidates leading in polls, investors fear a new administration might mismanage Brazil’s hefty $250 billion public debt, which could send shock waves through other Latin American economies.

—Reuters