Latin American stock markets rose marginally in thin post-Christmas holiday trade on Friday while sovereign bonds were little changed and currencies were mostlyy lower against the US dollar A rebound in crude oil and metals prices aided Brazil's stock market and pushed the real higher against the greenback.
Sovereign bond trading was limited by the holiday season, which kept markets across much of Europe closed on Friday. MSCI's Latin American stock index was up 0.77 percent at 2,044.89 while the broader emerging market stock index slipped 0.15 percent to 551.60.
Among Latin America's leading shares, Brazil's state energy giant Petrobras and mining company Vale were boosted by rising commodity prices. "There is a recovery because of the improvement after the close on Tuesday and markets overseas (today) are calm," said Rodrigo Nassar, head of trading at the Hencorp Commcor brokerage.
Brazil's markets were closed on Wednesday and Thursday. Local shares of Petrobras rose 3.64 percent to 22.8 reais, while the American-listed shares climbed 1.53 percent to $22.63. Crude oil prices gained on news that No 5 oil exporter United Arab Emirates was cutting production to comply with last week's output cut by OPEC of 2.2 million barrels per day, the cartel's biggest ever.
In New York trade, US crude oil rose $2.36, or almost 7 percent, to settle at $37.71 a barrel.
Shares of Brazilian miner Vale gained 2.97 percent to 23.90 reais. The US-listed shares gained 1.77 percent to $11.48. Copper prices recovering from a four-year low helped push the stock higher. The Bovespa index of the Sao Paulo exchange rose 1.08 percent to 36,864.13.
Mexico's stock market gained ground as well, aided by a turnaround in top cellphone operator American Movil's shares. However the local subsidiary of the US retailer, Wal-Mart, struggled. The benchmark IPC stock index rose 0.88 percent to 22,536 points, recovering from earlier losses.
America Movil shares rose 0.424 percent to 21.34 pesos while the US listed shares gained 0.19 percent to $31.79.
Wal-Mart de Mexico (Walmex) dropped 0.215 percent to 37.20 pesos. US-listed shares of the parent Wal-Mart were down 0.2 percent at $55.35. US retailers' sales fell as much as 4 percent during the holiday season, making it one of the worst in decades, according to data released on Thursday by SpendingPulse, a division of credit card company MasterCard.
The retail mess in the United States undermined the Mexican peso. It fell 1.12 percent to 13.45 against the US dollar. The commodity price rise helped the Brazilian real gain 0.76 percent to 2.37 per US dollar. Yield spreads between emerging market sovereign bonds and US Treasuries widened slightly, 2 basis points to 694 basis points, although trading was little to none. The move was largely the result of stronger US Treasuries pulling yields lower.
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