Foreign investors have pulled nearly 11 billion reais out of Brazil's stock market in 2018, marking the largest outflow since the global financial crisis in 2008, Bloomberg News reported citing data from local stock market operator B3.

The move comes amid investor concerns over both the global trade outlook and Brazil's local economic uncertainties, according to the report. The election of the market-friendly Jair Bolsonaro earlier in the year failed to sufficiently reverse the outflow.

Despite the pullback from international investors, which make up about half of Brazilian stock trading volumes, the benchmark IBOVESPA equity index continued to produce a third year of gains in 2018, Bloomberg noted.

As of Dec. 27, US$ 1 was equivalent to 3.90 Brazilian reais.