Brazilian stocks little changed, real weakens

(Updates to close)

SAO PAULO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks were little changed at the close on Tuesday as optimism about Brazil's long-term growth prospects came up against a bout of profit-taking that kept stocks negative most of the day.

The benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP squeaked out a gain of 0.13 percent to 66,303.48 as a rise by state-run oil giant Petrobras helped offset a drop by mining company Vale.

The index dipped most of the day as investors booked profits on a 2.71 percent jump the day before.

"Yesterday things went up quite a bit," said Julio Hegedus Neto, an economist at consulting firm Lopes Filho & Associados. Investors were looking at the short-term horizon in putting profits from those gains in their pockets, he added.

But, he noted, investors looking at a longer-term horizon expect Brazil to keep growing through the rest of this year and into the next.

Brazil's currency, the real (BRBY), weakened 0.88 percent to 1.717 per dollar. Brazil's finance minister, Guido Mantega, said at a televised event in Sao Paulo that the real has become overvalued as foreign inflows have poured dollars into Brazil. [ID:nN10303818]

Brazil welcomes foreign investments in the stock market, in direct investment and more, but "we don't want exaggerated inflows," he said. "We now have an overvaluation" of the Brazilian currency.

The real has gained about 36 percent against the dollar so far this year.