(Recasts, updates prices, adds quote)
By Aaron Saldanha
Nov 23 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies and stocks
ended lower for both the day and the week on Friday, hurt by
weakness in heavyweight Brazil, as they tracked global peers
lower amid concerns about slowing world growth.
MSCI's index of Latin American currencies
fell 0.3 percent on the day against the dollar, which firmed as
global risk appetite waned and investors sought the greenback's
stability.
The MSCI index of stocks in Latin America
fell every day this week, sliding 1.3 percent on Friday to notch
a 4.1 percent weekly loss - its worst since around mid-August.
A Brazil-based derivative manager at a brokerage firm pegged
a 0.6 percent weakening of the real to investors raising
their long positions on the dollar due to external cues.
Stocks in resource-rich Brazil logged a 1.4 percent
decline, with materials and energy stocks - especially sensitive
to slowing economic growth - dragging down the benchmark the
most.
Iron ore miner Vale SA sank 6.8 percent to record
its worst one-day performance since March 2017. Iron ore prices
in China, a key destination for Brazil's resource exports,
tumbled.
State-controlled oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA
tumbled 3.1 percent, as global oil prices dropped sharply.
Mexican stocks fell 0.3 percent to mark a more than
two-and-a-half-year closing low while the peso softened
half a percent.
The currency ended the week lower for an eighth straight
week. It has shed about 8.2 percent over the course of roughly
two months, hurt in no small part by perceived recent policy
missteps by President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's
administration.
The scrapping of a partially built airport following a
public consultation and lawmakers' proposals on certain banking
commissions and mining have hurt sentiment toward Latin
America's second largest economy in the past month.
Investors are watchful for a similar consultation that Lopez
Obrador's administration has scheduled for this weekend, with
the public set to weigh in on topics such as a new railway line
and an oil refinery.
Argentina's peso weakened about 3.1 percent with
local traders attributing the move to dollar-demand to hedge
private investors' portfolios amid surplus peso liquidity.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 2142 GMT
Stock indexes daily % YTD %
change change
Latest
MSCI Emerging Markets 969.17 -0.7 -16.34
MSCI LatAm 2557.64 -1.34 -9.56
Brazil Bovespa 86230.22 -1.43 12.86
Mexico IPC 41144.33 -0.31 -16.63
Chile IPSA 5140.74 0.46 0.46
Argentina MerVal 30723.48 1.48 2.19
Colombia IGBC 11902.79 -1.36 4.68
Currencies daily % YTD %
change change
Latest
Brazil real 3.8272 -0.14 -13.43
Mexico peso 20.4021 -0.46 -3.45
Chile peso 675.5 -1.04 -9.01
Colombia peso 3225.75 -1.19 -7.56
Peru sol 3.378 -0.18 -4.17
Argentina peso (interbank) 37.4000 -2.54 -50.27
Argentina peso (parallel) 36.5 -2.05 -47.32
(Reporting by Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru
Editing by Leslie Adler)
