Brazil's Bovespa stock index , which houses most of Latin America's biggest banks, slid 2.1%. Itau Unibanco Holding SA , Banco do Brasil SA , Bradesco SA and BTG Pactual SA fell between 1% and 3%.
Shares of banks in Mexico also fell, with Banorte , Banregio and Banco Del Bajio down more than 3% each.
The broader MSCI Latin America stocks gauge fell 3.0%. Embattled Credit Suisse slid to a new low and was on course to shed a quarter of its value after its largest shareholder said it could not provide any more support, renewing investor concerns about stresses within the sector triggered by Silicon Valley Bank's failure last week. "Credit Suisse is in principle a much bigger concern for the global economy than the regional US banks which were in the firing line last week," said Andrew Kenningham, an economist at Capital Economics.
"Credit Suisse has a much larger balance sheet than SVB and is much more globally inter-connected, with multiple subsidiaries outside Switzerland including in the U.S... Credit Suisse is not just a Swiss problem but a global one." Brazil's real dropped 1.1%, Mexico's peso slid almost 2%, and Colombia's peso was down 1.5% as the dollar strengthened in a rush to safe-havens. Intensifying the selloff even more were falls in prices of commodities such as oil and copper, which central and south American countries export heavily.
Oil hit its lowest in more than a year, before paring back some declines, while copper prices fell pushing the Chilean peso down over 2%.
Separately, Tech startups in Latin America are struggling to find banking alternatives after the crash of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), one of the few banks that offered much-needed dollar accounts and catered to the specific needs of the sector. Among other emerging markets, Central European currencies fell with the Hungarian forint leading declines in the region, softening 1.7% against the euro.
Pakistan's government eurobonds slumped after clashes between police and supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1503 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily
%
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 943.55 -0.17
MSCI LatAm 2062.15 -2.96
Brazil Bovespa 100757.9 -2.11
8
Mexico IPC 52066.64 -1.19
Chile IPSA 5221.93 -1.45
Argentina MerVal 212170.4 -3.754
4
Colombia COLCAP 1126.46 -2.57
Currencies Latest Daily
%
change
Brazil real 5.3050 -0.91
Mexico peso 18.9600 -1.95
Chile peso 820.9 -2.20
Colombia peso 4816.49 -1.64
Peru sol 3.8075 -0.55
Argentina peso (interbank) 202.5200 -0.21 Argentina peso (parallel) 371 1.62
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru, Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
