Argentine stocks rose on Friday as a rise in global oil prices lifted shares in index heavyweight Tenaris, a leading steel tube maker. The benchmark MerVal index of the 16 leading stocks closed up 0.4 percent at 2,197.77 points, finishing the week with a 0.85 percent gain.
US crude oil futures surged more than a dollar on Friday to $66.46 a barrel as traders covered short positions after news that Saudi Arabia had foiled an al Qaeda-linked plot targeting oil facilities and military bases in the kingdom. "We had a volatile day on the MerVal, but the market rebounded on Tenaris and oil prices," said Mariano Tavelli, a trader with Tavelli brokerage.
A global leader in steel pipes for the oil industry, Tenaris, which has a 18.91 percent weighting on the MerVal, rose 1.4 percent to 72.2 pesos. On the overall market, of 105 active stocks, 64 rose, 23 fell, and 17 were unchanged.