Brazil's Silva winning over investors in presidential race

Investors are warming up to a possible victory by Marina Silva in Brazil's presidential election as the popular environmentalist emerges as their best shot at avoiding four more years of a government they strongly dislike.

Disdain for President Dilma Rousseff's leftist policies runs so deep in Brazilian financial markets that one comment making the rounds there says: "Marina is like Russian roulette, but Dilma is like a fully-loaded revolver."

Yet, since formally entering the presidential race last week following the death of her Brazilian Socialist Party's previous candidate in a plane crash, Silva has earned comparisons to other global leaders who recently rode a youth-driven desire for change to victory.

Rousseff still has a strong base of support in Brazil's impoverished northeast, where her government's social programs are very popular.

Yet nowhere is antipathy toward Rousseff greater than in the country's financial capital, Sao Paulo, where investors are tired of sustaining heavy losses since she took over in 2011.

Since then, Brazil's economy has grown less than 2 percent a year on average, and the real has lost 26 percent.