Recession? What recession, ask Brazil's investors

When Paolo Portinho meets up with his musician friends for a night out in Rio de Janeiro, they jam a few tunes and knock back some beers - but only after having a serious talk about the stock market.

Brazilians' long-held suspicion of stock investment, born out of years of rampant inflation and economic instability, is evaporating in the face of a Sao Paulo market that has more than tripled in 4 years on the back of a booming economy.

The number of individual investors in Brazil has risen six-fold in the past five years and more than doubled since 2006 to nearly 490,000. In 5 years, the daily amount they trade has soared to 1.8 billion reais ($1.1 billion) from 120 million reais ($73.6 million).