Argentine stocks inched higher on Friday as investors shuffled portfolios after futures options expired, cancelling out earlier losses on fallout from Brazil's corruption scandal, traders said.
The benchmark MerVal index of 11 leading stocks closed 0.72 percent higher at 1,495.42 points after dropping nearly 1 percent in early trade. The MerVal gained 1.09 percent on the week and 8.73 percent so far this year.
Volume was a hefty 83 million pesos ($28.6 million).
"The volatility has to do with Brazil, which hit hard in early trade and also due to pressure from the futures contracts," said Juan Dietrich, trader with Capital markets brokerage.
Brazil's currency fell nearly 4 percent before partially recovering and stocks slumped on Friday on news reports that linked Finance Minister Antonio Palocci to a bribes scheme when he was a mayor
The MerVal's rise was helped by Petrobras Participaciones, a unit of Brazil's Petrobras. Petrobras Participaciones climbed 2.99 percent to 4.13 pesos. Steelmaker Acindar saw a gain of 2.99 percent to 5.36 pesos.
In the foreign exchange market, the peso fell to a four-month low as the Brazilian currency's slide added to government efforts to keep the Argentine peso weak, traders said.
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