Mexico's peso firmed sharply on Friday and stocks jumped amid a rebound in emerging market assets following a steep sell-off this week on worries about the deteriorating global economy. The benchmark IPC stock index rose 2.58 percent to 20,157 points, following two days of heavy losses.
The peso firmed 2.15 percent to 12.795 per dollar as investors unwound bets made against the currency earlier in the week ahead of a dismal US employment report that was released on Friday. Although the data showed US employers cut payrolls by 240,000 in October, worse than analysts had expected, global markets held steady after the report.
"On the release of the data and the lack of follow through in terms of weakness in global equities, people started to cover those short Mexican peso positions," said Nick Chamie, head of emerging market research at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.
"But there is still a lot of pessimism out there," Chamie said. Increasing signs of recession in the United States bode poorly for Mexico, which sends around 80 percent of its exports to its northern neighbour. However, investors took some heart from a string of recent interest rate cuts by central banks in major economies and other government actions to curb the impact of the worst financial crisis in 80 years. In equities trading, shares of top retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico gained 3.44 percent to 33.65 pesos.