SAO PAULO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Most Latin American stocks and
currencies retreated on Thursday after the European Central Bank
refrained from offering any clear hint of additional stimulus.
ECB President Mario Draghi said the bank will study policy
options to ensure it can pursue its unprecedented money-printing
program but did not signal any expansion of its asset purchases.
His comments triggered sales of emerging market assets,
which tend to benefit from looser policy in developed economies.
The Mexican peso was by far the biggest
loser in the region as traders waited for the release of the
country's 2017 budget proposal, which new Finance Minister Jose
Antonio Meade said would be in line with market expectations.
Rising oil prices on Thursday did little to
soften the peso's underperformance, which has puzzled many
traders this year. Some analysts blame the peso's status as a
highly-liquid currency, which leads traders to use the peso to
hedge their exposure to the rest of Latin America.
Others point to the possibility that if Donald Trump won the
U.S. presidential election he could make good on promises to
curtail Mexico-U.S. trade flows.
Most stock markets were either slightly lower or nearly
flat, with Brazilian steelmakers Gerdau SA
rising after a drop in Chinese steel exports.
Shares of Brasil Pharma SA jumped 20 percent
after Reuters reported Brazil's third-biggest drugstore chain is
close to selling two units for about 1.2 bln reais.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1630 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily YTD
pct pct
change change
MSCI Emerging Markets 924.54 -0.16 16.61
MSCI LatAm 2,487.54 -0.64 36.83
Brazil Bovespa 60,093.90 -0.06 38.63
Mexico IPC 47,374.70 -0.05 10.23
Chile IPSA 4,108.80 -0.15 11.65
Chile IGPA 20,422.23 -0.08 12.51
Argentina MerVal 16,417.22 0.62 40.62
Colombia IGBC 10,438.42 -0.09 22.12
Venezuela IBC 11,991.70 -4 -17.80
Currencies Latest Daily YTD
pct pct
change change
Brazil real 3.2009 -0.22 23.31
Mexico peso 18.6525 -1.49 -7.63
Chile peso 663.8 -0.35 6.91
Colombia peso 2,848.6 0.37 11.26
Peru sol 3.369 -0.21 1.34
Argentina peso (interbank) 15.0675 -0.08 -13.84
Argentina peso (parallel) 15.23 0.46 -6.30
(Reporting by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Bernadette Baum)Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.