Argentine stocks fell on Friday, resuming a downward tendency after a brief climb on Thursday, on investor caution ahead of the government's controversial debt swap later this month, traders said. The MerVal index of the 12 leading stocks fell 0.54 percent to 1,309.45 points, erasing gains of 1.25 percent earlier in the session after US job data made an aggressive US interest rate hike look more distant.
Traders said local investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the Jan 17 launch of the government's debt swap offer on international markets.
The next signal investors are waiting for is the percentage of bondholder acceptance of the offer, rejected by some creditor groups as a huge loss on their investment.
However, local market talk is that some 70 percent will accept the offer.
Argentina needs to restructure its $102.6 billion in defaulted government debt in order to return to world credit markets. Trade was weak at $13.3 million.
Steelmaker Tenaris slid 1.42 percent to 13.85 pesos and aluminum producer Aluar sank 1.06 percent to 3.72 pesos.
In the foreign exchange market, the peso ended flat on Friday as trade continued to be slow during the summer holiday season, traders said.
The currency finished at 2.975/2.98 per US dollar, unchanged from Thursday after the central bank absorbed $40 million in dollars.
The peso has depreciated 0.17 percent in the first week of 2005 after falling 0.50 percent in 2004.