| | |  Business News | January 2009 
Mexico Stocks Stage Strongest Rally in Two Weeks
 Michael O'Boyle - Reuters
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| | Mexico's IPC stock index closed out its worst year since 1998 this week, falling 24.23 percent on the year, hit by the global credit crisis and the recession in the United States. | |
Mexico City - Mexican stocks jumped by the most in more than two weeks on Friday as investors expected further major stimulus packages abroad would jolt economies out of deepening slumps.
The benchmark IPC stock index .MXX rose 1.93 percent to 22,812 points, its biggest percentage gain since Dec. 17, when the market rallied the day after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate to nearly zero.
India on Friday slashed its main interest rates in the latest move by a major government to aid battered financial markets.
Investors were also focused on the incoming U.S. administration's stimulus plan to kick-start the economy of the United States, Mexico's chief trading partner.
"Stock indexes are positive ahead of the market expectation that governments will keep up efforts to revive the economy," Actinver brokerage analyst Jaime Ascencio wrote in a note to clients.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is due to meet leaders in Congress on Monday to discuss his stimulus plan which could help pull the U.S. economy out of its deepest slump in decades.
Mexico's IPC stock index closed out its worst year since 1998 this week, falling 24.23 percent on the year, hit by the global credit crisis and the recession in the United States, the destination of around 80 percent of Mexican exports.
The peso MEX01 firmed 0.38 percent to 13.762 per dollar.
The Mexican currency will likely head toward 14 per dollar this year as growth weakens, Invex brokerage said in a note to clients. The peso lost 21 percent during 2008.
In debt trading, the yield on the government's benchmark 10-year peso bond fell 6 basis points to 7.91 percent.
Mexico's central bank is widely expected to lower borrowing costs during the first quarter of 2009 after hiking its key interest rate three times in 2008 to 8.25 percent.
On Friday, shares in America Movil (AMXL.MX), Latin America's biggest cell phone operator, added 2.17 percent to 21.69 pesos a share while its stock on Wall Street (AMX.N) climbed 1.71 percent to $31.52.
Top retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico (WALMEXV.MX) gained 1.97 percent to 37.73 pesos.
Shares in Cemex (CMXCPO.MX), the world's No. 3 cement company and the top U.S. supplier, jumped 5.82 percent to 13.45 pesos while its shares in New York (CX.N) surged 7 percent to $9.78.
(Editing by Walker Simon) |
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