The Bovespa Index of Brasil is an index of about 50 stocks that are traded on the São Paulo Stock, Mercantile & Futures Exchange.

The index is composed by a theoretical portfolio with the stocks that accounted for 80% of the volume traded in the last 12 months and that were traded at least on 80% of the trading days. It’s revised quarterly, in order to keep its representativeness of the volume traded and in average the components of Ibovespa represent 70% of the all the stock value traded.

BOVESPA is an accumulation index. Its index number represents the present value of a portfolio begun on 2 January 1968, with a starting value of 100 and taking into account share price increases plus the reinvestment of all dividends, subscription rights and bonus stocks received.

The index has been adjusted as follows:

• 1 – division by 100, on 3 October 1983
• 2 – division by 10, on 2 December 1985
• 3 – division by 10, on 29 August 1988
• 4 – division by 10, on 14 April 1989
• 5 – division by 10, on 12 January 1990
• 6 – division by 10, on 28 May 1991
• 7 – division by 10, on 21 January 1992
• 8 – division by 10, on 26 January 1993
• 9 – division by 10, on 27 August 1993
• 10 – division by 10, on 10 February 1994
• 11 – division by 10, on 3 March 1997.