Mexican stocks soar

01 Aug, 2004

Mexican stocks rose on Friday, as copper miner Group Mexico rallied on news of a resolved strike, and the peso gained for a third straight session after weak US economic news.
The IPC benchmark stock index rose 0.56 percent to end at 10,116.39 points.
The world's No 3 copper producer, Group Mexico was among the top gainers, closing 4.54 percent higher at 38.26 pesos.
The company said on Thursday union workers at its La Caridad operations in northern Mexico agreed to end a 17-day strike after reaching a labour agreement.
"Group Mexico had some labour problems, but they've been resolved and today their stock rallied," said one stock trader. Strong second-quarter earnings reports in recent days helped stock prices on the broad market, traders said.
Mexico's peso currency gained 0.07 percent to 11.4160 against the dollar. The US government said gross domestic product expanded 3 percent in the second quarter after a 4.5 percent clip at the start of the year, leading to dollar losses.
"US GDP came out worse than expected," said one dealer. "That helped the peso."
Peso dealers said US economic news giving clues as to how fast US interest rates might rise will continue to be important to the Mexican currency's performance.
"US data will be key to peso developments, not just for today but into next week," said HSBC in a report. Banorte's shares rose 2.56 pesos to 42.00 pesos after it said on Thursday it would cut between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs by September at the latest in order to bring costs in line with competitors.
Fixed-line telecommunications firm Telmex's shares were up 0.11 percent at 17.66 pesos and its New York-traded shares ticked 1 cent higher to $30.88.

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