BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)–Argentine stocks rose on a continued tailwind from YPF SA’s (YPF, YPFD.BA) major shale oil strike announcement this week, while continued worries over Europe dampened risk appetite and weighed on bonds.
Argentina’s benchmark Merval stock index rose 0.6% to 2,693.62 points amid light volume of 36 million peso ($9 million).
The gains were lead by YPF, which shot up 4.3% to close at ARS167. On Monday, YPF said it had found 927 million barrels of unconventional oil in Argentina’s Neuquen Province, potentially putting the country among the world’s leading producers of shale oil. Similar discoveries in the U.S. have dramatically reversed fortunes in the country’s oil and gas industry, which only a decade ago was widely expected to be in irreversible decline. The company expects to increase its production in the Vaca Muerta shale field tenfold to 50,000 barrels of oil per day in three to four years, a company executive said Wednesday. YPF is a unit of Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF S.A. (REPYY, REP.MC).
Meanwhile, bonds generally moved lower as investors cast a wary eye to the debt crisis in Europe.
The peso-denominated 2033 discount bond fell 0.8% in price terms to ARS121, to yield 13.35%.
The peso-denominated 2035 GDP warrant slipped 1.35% to ARS13.88.
The peso closed at ARS4.2625 on the MAE local foreign-exchange wholesale market, unchanged from Wednesday.
-By Shane Romig, Dow Jones Newswires; 54-11-4103-6738; shane.romig@dowjones.com
Source: http://online.wsj.com