Mexican stocks ended flat on Friday but still closed in record territory after traders said an early rally propelled by telecoms Telmex and America Movil lost steam. The IPC benchmark stock index eked out a gain of 0.05 percent to end at 13,446.95 points, a fresh high closing level, after earlier trading at an all-time peak of 13,625.69 points. Mexican telephone company Telmex said late on Thursday its quarterly net profit soared 77.5 percent, boosted by a tax break worth 2.5 billion pesos and a stronger peso.
Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) said it earned 10.43 billion pesos ($935 million) in the October-December period.
"The Telmex earnings were very good," one trader said.
The blue-chip stock rose to an all-time high of 21.70 pesos early in the session, but a bout of profit-taking reeled the back to close up 0.05 percent at 21.49 pesos.
Telmex's American Depositary Receipt (ADR) finished 0.34 percent higher at $38.59.
Other telecommunications listing gained following the Telmex news. America Movil, the country's largest wireless operator, added 1.04 percent to 31.22 pesos and its ADR increased 1.28 percent to $56.16.
America Movil holding company American Telecom was 0.65 percent higher at 33.85 pesos.
Mexico's publicly listed companies have until February 25 to post fourth-quarter earnings and investors generally anticipate favorable results, thanks to the country's economic recovery.
But in recent weeks, stock prices have been volatile as investors tentatively test new highs.
"There are still some undervalued stocks that are providing support," said Raul Rendon, an analyst at Bank Boston in Mexico City.
In the foreign exchange market, the peso gained 0.15 percent to 11.1488 per dollar.
Mexico's currency has gained about 1.3 percent since the central bank tightened monetary policy last Friday.
"We expect the dollar/peso to be restrained by high short-term domestic interest rates," said WestLB Research analyst Ricardo Amorin.
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