Argentine stocks slumped on Friday to their lowest level in more than 21 months, falling along with bonds for a second straight day as investors sold assets amid growing economic concerns. Falling commodities prices also took a toll, traders said.
The benchmark MerVal index closed down 2.16 percent at 1,776.66 points, accumulating a 5.7 percent loss this week. It was the lowest close since October 30, 2006. "Once again the sell-off in bonds caused jitters in the stock market, which suffered sharp losses without any rational logic since quarterly earnings on the whole have grown 50 percent from last year," said Ruben Pascuali, a trader at Mayoral Bursatil brokerage.
Index heavyweight Tenaris, which makes steel tubes for the energy industry, led the MerVal's losses, shedding 5.66 percent to 85.00 pesos a share due to a sharp fall in US crude oil futures.
Trade volume on the overall market was a moderate $34.9 million. Of active shares, 51 rose, 71 fell and 11 were unchanged. Argentine sovereign debt shed about 3 percent on average in over-the-counter trade, with the peso-denominated 2033 Discount bond shedding 4 percent. Argentina's debt spreads widened more than 40 basis points to 727 basis points over US Treasuries in late trade on Friday, according to J.P. Morgan's Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus (EMBI+).