BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)–Argentina’s stocks closed lower on Thursday led by declines in steel tube maker Tenaris SA (TS, TEN.MI), while most benchmark bonds finished the session with little change.
The Merval fell 0.7% to close at 2818.09 on volume of 44.2 million pesos ($10.1 million).
«We had the settlement of local options last week and Tenaris shares which have a lot of weight on the local market closed lower after results,» said Adrian Mayoral, a senior trader at local brokerage Mayoral Bursatil.
Tenaris shares fell 1.6% to ARS97.54 as investors booked profits even after the company reported fourth-quarter results above market expectations. Still, the shares are up 12.4% so far this year.
Shares of banking concern Grupo Financiero Galicia SA (GGAL, GGAL.BA) fell 1.1% to ARS3.68, shares of bank Banco Macro SA (BMA, BMA.BA) dropped 2.3% to ARS10.75, and shares of phone company Telecom Argentina SA (TEO, TECO2.BA) rose 0.3% to ARS18.95.
Turnover on the local fixed-income market was ARS515.7 million, accounting for 64% of the total volume of securities traded on the exchange during the session.
The 2033 Discount bond rose 0.6% to ARS136.75, to yield 12.28%. The Boden 2015 rose 0.1% to ARS472.55, yielding 5.33%.
The 2035 peso-denominated GDP warrant fell 0.4% to close at ARS14.19.
The peso closed at ARS4.3550 to the U.S. dollar on the MAE local foreign-exchange wholesale market, compared with ARS4.3545 at Wednesday’s close.
The central bank regularly intervenes in the foreign exchange market to buy dollars and to keep the peso on a slow path of depreciation against the greenback.
«Taking into account that starting in the second half of next month agri-business export revenues will start flowing in, it’s probable that the [central bank’s] interventions during the last part of the first quarter will increase,» Puente brokerage wrote in a note.
-By Ken Parks, Dow Jones Newswires; 54-11-4103-6740; ken.parks@dowjones.com
Source: online.wsj.com