Argentina stocks chalked up a seventh straight day of gains to touch new historic highs on Friday as investors grew confident that the government's controversial debt swap would end three years of default. The MerVal index of the 12 leading stocks climbed 0.64 percent to settle at 1,496.91 points and has advanced 8.96 percent in February so far. Late Thursday, Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna said bonds tendered in the first 3-1/2 weeks of its debt swap offer totalled 37.3 percent of the total eligible debt.
Many analysts say the partial data point to the government obtaining a 70 percent acceptance rate in the six-week offer ending February 25. Energy group Petrobras Participaciones led the gainers with a 1.57 percent jump to 3.86 pesos. Banking heavyweight Group Financieo Galicia rallied 1.11 percent to 2.72 pesos. The two firms combined represent 40 percent weighting in the MerVal.
Turnover in the stock exchange was $34.3 million.
In the foreign exchange market, the peso ended unchanged but traders said it would have appreciated sharply against the dollar had it not been for intervention by the Central Bank and the state-owned Banco de la Nacion.
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