Argentine stocks slump

Argentine stocks dropped 1.9 percent on Friday as investors sold off after the market hit a historic high a day earlier. The profit-taking especially hit steel tube maker Tenaris, which is weighted as one third of the index. Tenaris, a global leader in production of seamless tubes for the oil industry, lost 2.81 percent to 69.3 pesos.
The MerVal index of 13 leading stocks retreated to 1,929.46 points after a record close of 1.967.02 points on Thursday. "The fall was provoked by profit-taking and external factors. It's likely that in the coming sessions we continue with the same characteristics, along with pressure on the dollar against the euro," said Dionisio Corneille, director of the brokerage that bears his name. In the United States, the blue chip Dow Jones industrials ended down 0.24 percent after a manufacturing index showed its weakest reading in three years.