By Shreyashi Sanyal June 30 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies and stocks gauges outperformed broader emerging markets in the first half of the year on Friday, while Colombia's peso traded in a tight range as its central bank geared up to likely pause its interest rate hiking regime. The MSCI's index for Latam currencies has risen nearly 17% in the first sixth months of 2023, while its stocks counterpart has jumped a little over 15%. The MSCI's broader gauge for emerging market stocks added 3.5% in the six months up to June, while its FX index gained just about 1%. Colombia's peso led the advance among Latam currencies in the first-half, strengthening some 14%. The currency has benefited from optimism around a likely delay in leftist President Gustavo Petro's proposed social reforms as he weathers a political scandal. The currency was flat as investors will now shift focus to Colombia's central bank later in the day, which is widely expected to hold its rate steady, ending nearly two years of rate rises meant to contain inflation. Brazil's real rose 0.7% against a weakening dollar after U.S. economic data showed a cooling in consumer spending, raising some doubt about the potential aggressiveness of the Federal Reserve. The real is up about 9% so far this year. Data showed Brazil's jobless rate fell for the third rolling quarter in a row in the three months through May, underscoring the strength of the labor market in Latin America's largest economy despite high interest rates. Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras fell 4% after it said it will reduce the prices of gasoline and cooking gas sold to distributors starting Saturday. Latin American investors were also hopeful that major central banks in the region, which have led some of the most aggressive tightening over the last two years, may be poised to lead the world on interest rate cutting amid clear signs of slowing inflation in places like Chile and Brazil. "It now feels like the bar for not hiking in August is pretty high," said Kimberley Sperrfechter, emerging market economist at Capital Economics. "And it would require nasty upside surprises in the inflation figures in July (unlikely), congress derailing the government's fiscal plans (also unlikely) and/or a sharp fall in the real." The Mexican peso was also among top gainers in the first half, up about 12%. Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1556 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 990.06 0.3 MSCI LatAm 2452.03 0.83 Brazil Bovespa 119016.2 0.54 9 Mexico IPC 53447.78 -0.26 Chile IPSA 5777.40 0.86 Argentina MerVal 414954.4 -0.363 9 Colombia COLCAP 1134.23 0.29 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 4.8140 0.65 Mexico peso 17.1450 -0.13 Chile peso 801.9 0.12 Colombia peso 4161 0.52 Peru sol 3.6264 -0.20 Argentina peso (interbank) 256.6500 -0.16 Argentina peso (parallel) 488 1.23 (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCool)
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Stocks mentioned in the article
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1,562,849 PTS | -1.15% | +56.28% | - | ||
124,803 PTS | -0.67% | -2.71% | - | ||
56,432 PTS | -0.58% | -1.40% | - | ||
9,435 PTS | -4.61% | -1.44% | - | ||
2,431 USD | -0.34% | -2.15% | - | ||
1,092 USD | -0.32% | +1.33% | - | ||
964.5 ARS | +0.20% | +0.09% | - | ||
890.5 ARS | +0.11% | +0.56% | - | ||
556.7 PTS | +0.48% | +0.88% | - | ||
384.3 PTS | -0.04% | +0.15% | - | ||
81.33 USD | -0.40% | -1.86% | - | ||
76.88 USD | -0.31% | -2.61% | - | ||
37.1 BRL | -4.22% | -0.59% | 95.53B | ||
18.08 MXN | +0.21% | -0.47% | - | ||
16.69 MXN | +0.17% | +0.12% | - | ||
12.27 MXN | +0.20% | -0.58% | - | ||
5.576 BRL | -0.06% | -0.27% | - | ||
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