BM&F Shares Jump 22% on Debut

Shares of BM&F, Brazil’s mercantile and futures exchange, jumped 22% to BRL24.40 in the first day of trade. The surge was small compared to the first day for the Bovespa, which popped 52%. The BM&F’s underwriters claim there was a deliberate strategy to avoid such a leap by distributing the stock more broadly and jacking up the price range a day before books closed. With the green shoe, the company will have raised $3.3bn in the year’s second largest IPO, second only to the Bovespa’s $3.7bn. Ecopetrol’s $2.8bn deal and Redecard’s $2.4bn were the region’s two other largest deals this year. Leading the BM&F were JPMorgan, BBI, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Itau BBA, Deutsche Bank and Citi.