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Colombia's Q1 GDP up 3%, beats market forecasts
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Argentina's central bank hikes interest rates to 97%
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Turkish assets weaken as presidential runoff looms
(Updates prices throughout, adds comment in paragraph 10)
By Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas
May 15 (Reuters) -
Most Latin American currencies rose on Monday against a weak U.S. dollar, led by Colombia's peso, while Turkish assets came under pressure as presidential elections headed towards a runoff between incumbent Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival. The Colombian peso , the currency of a major oil exporting nation, jumped 1.1% and hit a one-week intraday high, tracking higher crude prices. .
Data also showed that the Andean nation's economy grew 3% in the first quarter, exceeding market forecasts published in a Reuters poll.
The Brazilian real climbed 0.6%, the Mexican peso gained 0.8%, while Peru's sol edged up 0.1%.
Data showed Peru's gross domestic product expanded 0.22% on a year-on-year basis in March following two consecutive months of contraction, as the economy was hurt by nationwide anti-government protests.
The MSCI index for Latin American currencies was up 0.8%, after hitting its highest level since late 2014.
The index has touched multi-year highs several times this year amid evidence of cooling U.S. inflation which has bolstered hopes of a rate hike pause by the Federal Reserve.
The dollar slid from a five-week high, pressured by weak manufacturing data out of New York state and as it consolidated gains made last week amid fears about the U.S. debt ceiling and economy. On the flip side, Chile's peso slipped 0.6%. The country's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 11.25% last week. Analysts at J.P.Morgan noted that the monetary policy tightening cycle in emerging markets is nearing an end, with a handful of economies likely delivering their last hikes despite resilient growth and sticky core inflation.
Meanwhile, Argentina's central bank hiked its benchmark
interest rate by 600 basis points to 97%, as the country battles
to bring down inflation that hit 109% on an annual basis in
April.
Elsewhere, Turkey's lira and sovereign dollar bonds tumbled
and the cost of insuring exposure to the country's debt spiked
as Erdogan performed better than expected during Sunday's
election but fell short of an outright majority.
The results disappointed investors hoping for an opposition
win that could result in a monetary policy shift. A second round
of voting will be held on May 28.
Latam stocks gained 1.2%. Mexico's main stock
index led the gains with a 0.8% advance.
Among specific stocks, Azul SA said it expects to
increase capacity by around 14% in 2023 after its net loss
narrowed in the first quarter. Still, shares of the Brazilian
airline were down 0.8%.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2000 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily %
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 978.26 0.54 MSCI LatAm 2341.27 1.23
Brazil Bovespa 109112.13 0.6
Mexico IPC 55360.74 0.75
Chile IPSA 5616.06 0.34 Argentina MerVal 320466.53 -0.331
Colombia COLCAP 1150.77 -0.72 Currencies Latest Daily %
change
Brazil real 4.8910 0.63
Mexico peso 17.4346 0.84
Chile peso 786.1 -0.59
Colombia peso 4504.5 1.12
Peru sol 3.6497 0.08
Argentina peso (interbank) 230.6000 -0.56 Argentina peso (parallel) 478 -0.84 (Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Ankika Biswas; Editing by
Maju Samuel and Paul Simao)
