|
Latin American markets rallied, following weakness throughout the first three sessions of the week. Brazilian and Mexican shares were particularly strong.
Investors are closely monitoring the impending outcome of a key vote regarding the impeachment of Mexico City's popular mayor. Argentine shares were little changed.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa Index rebounded 612.78 points, or 2.38%, while Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index rallied 300.14 points, or 2.47%. Argentina's Merval Index edged up 0.17 points, or 0.01%.
Brazilian issues turned notably higher, following three consecutive days of losses. Crude oil prices posted significant declines, easing U.S. rate-tightening concerns, while supporting prospects for foreign investment in Brazil. Also, investors await inflation data due out tomorrow.
In corporate reports, Petrobras, Brazil's state-owned oil firm, said that on Wednesday it exceeded 1.7 million barrels of crude for the first time. The firm's oil output has increased at a rapid pace since it brought the P-43 and P-48 platforms online.
Phone companies, including heavily-weighted Telemar, were active, after the firms agreed to a 7.99% hike in prices for calls made from fixed-line phones to mobile phones, according to the local press.
Elsewhere, Aneel, Brazil's electricity regulator, allowed four utilities, including Energética de Minas Gerais, to raise rates. Rates were increased to a level above analyst expectations, causing some concern that inflation could pick up. On the news, a major broker raised its price target on Cemig.
Mexican issues also turned substantially higher, following recent weakness amid political uncertainty. The full house of Congress is expected to vote in favor of stripping political immunity from Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after the market closes today.
The move would allow the popular mayor to face charges of ignoring a court order in a land-use dispute, which in turn would likely prevent him from running for president in 2006. Nevertheless, the mayor declared his intention to run for president next year.
Turning to economic reports, Mexico's Consumer Price Index rose a slightly higher-than-expected 0.45% in March, following a 0.33% uptick in February.
The central bank cited higher fruit and vegetable prices for March's advance. The annual inflation rate climbed to 4.39% from 4.27% at February's end. Core inflation, excluding education, energy and fruit and vegetable costs, rose 0.31% last month.
Wal-Mart de Mexico SA, Latin America's largest retailer, was active ahead of the release of its financial report, due out after the market's close.
Industrial firm Alfa SA was in focus, after the firm's chairman and chief executive said it was in discussions with six companies to sell Hylsamex SA, its steel unit.
Meanwhile, a major investment house raised its rating on brewing behemoth Grupo Modelo SA to "buy 2" from "neutral," due to its surprisingly strong operating results during the past two quarters. The brokerage also raised its price target.
Argentine issues spent most of the session lower, but finished little changed. Investors continue to await a U.S. ruling, which is expected toward the end of April, regarding Argentina's debt swap.
In related news on the legal front, Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia is seeking more than US$ 600 million in damages from Argentina, claiming the government used "expropriatory and discriminatory actions" when the bank lost its investment in subsidiary Scotiabank Quilmes. Argentina's debt default in 2001 led to the unit's demise.
In the news, the Argentine unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group reduced gasoline prices today in an attempt to offset losses after the firm's price hike in March. Following the price increase, President Nestor Kirchner asked citizens to boycott the firm.
PRNewswire
Thomson Financial Corporate Group
www.thomsonfinancial.com
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.