Latam stocks on track for best week in two years

Latin American stocks seesawed on Friday, the day after markets rallied on a eurozone debt deal, but were on track to post their best week in more than two years as investors hoped the European crisis would now abate. The MSCI Latin American stock index jumped 1.8 percent, a day after seeing its biggest one-day percentage gain since early May 2010.
The index so far this week has surged about 10 percent for the week - its best such performance since May 2009 - after worries about the eurozone had left stocks lacklustre for much of the year. A deal for European governments to re-capitalise banks and push private investors to take bigger voluntary losses on their holdings of Greek debt pushed global markets sharply higher yesterday. But with the agreement still lacking a number of details, investors turned warier on Friday.
"Yesterday was all about 'gimme gimme,'" said Jose Francisco de Lima Goncalves, chief economist with Banco Fator in Sao Paulo. "Today things are plenty volatile. Things depend more on (the debt deal's effects) sector by sector, or stock by stock." Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index firmed 0.05 percent after closing at a three-month high in the previous session, It has advanced 7.4 percent so far this week.
State-controlled energy giant Petrobras helped lead gains, rising 0.6 percent. Limiting gains, preferred shares of Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, slid 0.6 percent, with fellow mining company MMX off 2.3 percent. Mexico's IPC index rose 1.18 percent to touch a better-than-six month high. The IPC surged past its 200-day moving average this week for the first time since falling below the level in July.
The IPC's gains of more than 8.8 percent this week, if they hold through the close, would mark the index's best performance since April. Shares of America Movil, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, advanced 1.54 percent. Chile's IPSA index fell 0.53 percent after closing at its highest in nearly four months in the previous session, but was up 4 percent for the week. Retailer Falabella lost 1.75 percent, leading losses.