© Archyde.com/AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
Protesters walk through the center of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, once morest an agreement with the IMF
By Jorge Otaola
BUENOS AIRES, March 14 (Archyde.com) – The Argentine stock market closed with a sustained drop on Monday in line with the uncertainty of investors in the short term, when the Government seeks legislative endorsement of an agreement with the IMF to refinance millionaire debt and the differences in the coalition of President Alberto Fernández are exposed.
The senators began to discuss the understanding with the international credit organization in commission, in search of an opinion that allows its treatment on Thursday, just five days before the South American country must face some 2,800 million dollars before the IMF.
Likewise, the dance agreement must have the approval of the agency’s board of directors, which is expected to occur immediately following the sanction as a law from the Argentine Congress.
“Political and economic constraints augur a continuing struggle in the mud of decadence if strategic changes are not addressed,” said Roberto Drimer, head of consulting firm VatNet Research.
The economist Miguel Broda maintained that “the economy will enter a path of extreme financial fragility” in the current situation.
To add insult to injury, the market added another stumbling block since the Government closed the registry of soybean meal and oil exports on Sunday, with what is speculated to be the initial step to raise tariffs on exports of these products, a measure widely rejected by agrarian entities.
* The S&P Merval stock index fell an unusual 4.54%, to 84,955.4 points as a provisional close, following accumulating a drop of 0.58% last week, to return to mid-January levels. Companies in the energy segment led the trend in taking short profits.
* The Argentine country risk, prepared by the bank JP. Morgan, fell nine basis points to 1,809 units at 2000 GMT, following reaching a record of 1,991 units a week ago.
* Over-the-counter sovereign bonds improved a marginal 0.2% average, following rising 0.8% on Friday due to portfolio positions pending legislative endorsement on the IMF issue.
* In the exchange market, the wholesale peso lost 0.28%, to 109.19/109.20 per dollar with the regulation of the central bank (BCRA), which added some 90 million dollars to its reserves.
* “Today you have many more dollars than expected,” said economist Fausto Spotorno, in line with exporters’ fears of an increase in withholdings.
* The peso in the informal segment rose to 200 per dollar, the highest in three months, and in the alternative segments it stood at 189.1 per unit in the “counted with liquidation” (CCL) stock market and 186.8 in the sued “dollar MEP”.
(Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Editing by Walter Bianchi)
