BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)–Argentine stocks were mixed Thursday and the Merval index closed unchanged on the day.
The index ended at 2,715.19 points in volume totaling ARS58 million ($13.4 million).
«The market is focused on the financial sector,» said Ruben Pascuali, a trader at Mayoral brokerage. «Today’s round was pretty similar to yesterday’s in that sense but with reduced volume.»
Banco Frances (FRAN.BA) led the gains, rising 3.2% to ARS9.4.
The aluminum producer Aluar Aluminio Argentino SAIC (ALUA.BA, AAARF) rose 2% to ARS2.98 after surging more than 12% the previous day. Aluar’s price fell sharply earlier this week after it made a dividend payment out of its stock.
«That made the stock much more appealing psychologically to investors,» Pascuali said.
The agro-industrial company Ledesma (LEDE.BA) led the declines, falling 3.5% to ARS7.2
The Global X FTSE Argentina 20 ETF, which tracks shares of Argentine companies listed on international markets, was unchanged at ARS11.13 in New York trading.
The price of the benchmark peso-denominated 2033 rose 2.36% to ARS130, yielding 12.6%.
The peso weakened to ARS4.3115 on the MAE local foreign-exchange wholesale market versus at ARS4.3046 in the previous session.
Last year the peso weakened 7.6% against the dollar.
-By Taos Turner, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4103-6728; taos.turner@dowjones.com
Source: online.wsj.com