Brazil stocks jump on stimuli hopes, real stronger

(Updates to close)

SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks surged on Monday as a pledge by G20 nations to keep fiscal and monetary stimuli in place heartened investors.

At the weekend G20 finance ministers and central bankers agreed to keep up recession-fighting measures until economic recovery is assured. [ID:nL7204184].

"For the markets, that means the following: There's liquidity around, so let's use it," said Newton Rosa, an economist with SulAmerica Investimentos. "That's feeding today's highs."

Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP rose 2.71 percent to 66,214.34, notching its best close in three weeks.

Brazil's currency, the real (BRBY), strengthened 0.99 percent to 1.702 per dollar, testing the psychologically significant 1.7-per-dollar barrier as the greenback weakened against a basket of major currencies .DXY.

The real's gains are "not really a testament to the strength of the Brazilian economy but the weakness of the U.S. dollar," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT Forex. "Overall you are seeing another fresh wave of dollar weakness."

The currency has gained about 37 percent so far in 2009 as dollars have poured into Brazil, where growth resumed in the second quarter ahead of many developed economies.

Commodities gained on the back of the weakened dollar, as well. The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies index .CRB rose 1.73 percent. Crude oil CLc1 added 2.58 percent, buoyed not only by the lower dollar but also the closure of U.S. oil and gas facilities in the path of Tropical Storm Ida. [ID:nN09484512]