The market was forced to suspend trading last night, with circuit breakers stepping in to prevent a catastrophic collapse after the Bovespa index initially fell by 10% in the space of 20 minutes.
It comes after Brazilian president Michel Temer was accused by one of the nation’s newspapers of paying a former Senate colleague to keep quiet in an investigation into corruption, although Temer has denied all wrongdoing.
Brazilian currency the real has also fallen sharply, dropping by 6.2% against the dollar.
