Argentina's Bonds, Stocks Track Offshore Markets Higher
BUENOS AIRES -- Argentina's bonds and stocks tracked gains in offshore markets Monday, as a brief pause in the European debt crisis and last week's strong U.S. economic data lifted emerging-market assets.
"Markets are looking pretty good this week. Europe is catching up and putting the ECB statement behind it. U.S. data also came out pretty good last Thursday and Friday," said Brian Joseph , a senior trader at Puente brokerage.
Turnover on the local fixed-income market was 446.8 million pesos ( $97 million million), accounting for almost 74% of the total volume of securities traded on the exchange.
The Bonar X closed 0.3% higher in price terms at ARS520.00 , yielding 4.4%.
The Boden 2015 rose 0.1% to ARS581.50 , yielding 13.1%.
The 2035 peso -denominated GDP warrant fell 0.3% to ARS12.60 .
Last Friday, Argentina's government made the final payment of $2.2 billion on its Boden 2012 bond.
Mr. Joseph thinks that at least 50% of the Boden payment will get ploughed back into the market by investors looking to take advantage of high-yielding provincial and sovereign debt.
"I see more value in provincial debt that is trading wider to the sovereign than before the [Sept.-Oct. European] crisis," he said. "There is still more catch-up to do in the provincial side than the sovereign side."
The peso weakened to close at ARS4.5925 to the U.S. dollar on the MAE foreign- exchange wholesale market, compared with ARS4.5880 Friday.
The Central Bank of Argentina regularly intervenes in the foreign-exchange market, buying dollars to build its international reserves and to keep the peso on a slow path of depreciation against the dollar.
Local brokerage Puente said in a note to clients the central bank bought $40 million dollars during a session, in which $320 million changed hands.
Since early May, authorities have severely limited dollar sales to businesses and individuals to beef up the central bank's hard-currency reserves, which has fueled a vibrant black market for dollars.
According to the newspaper El Cronista, the dollar fetched between ARS6.20 and ARS6.24 on the black market Monday.
Argentina's benchmark Merval stock index closed 1.1% higher at 2422.92 on volume of ARS31.2 million .
Steel-tube maker Tenaris SA (TS, TS.BA) closed 1.3% higher at ARS133.60 ; state-controlled oil-and-gas company YPF SA (YPF, YPFD.BA) rose 2.9% to ARS78.00 ; banking group Grupo Financiero Galicia SA (GGAL, GGAL.BA) rose 0.6% to ARS3.13 ; and phone company Telecom Argentina SA (TEO, TECO2.BA) closed 1% higher at ARS15.35 .
Write to Ken Parks at
ken.parks@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-06-12 1753ET
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