EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil's real jumps, stocks hit record high on upbeat data

  • 12/29/2020
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* Brazil stocks briefly hit record high * Oil-linked currencies gain * Real bounces of one-month low (Adds details, updates prices) By Shashank Nayar and Ambar Warrick Dec 29 (Reuters) - Brazil"s real jumped on Tuesday and stock markets hit an all-time high as upbeat data and hopes of a bigger U.S. stimulus package drove year-end buying into Latin American assets set to benefit from a speedy economic recovery. The real bounced off a one-month low to trade up 0.9%, as the government reported a November budget deficit well below forecasts. Data also showed Brazil"s jobless rate fell for the first time this year in the three months through October, while a survey showed consumer confidence increased in December for the first time in three months. Sao Paolo stocks briefly hit a record high, as the readings pointed towards improving trends in Latin America"s largest economy, while investors also expected increased liquidity in the United States to benefit regional risk assets. "The wider fiscal package from the U.S. Congress and the Brazilian economy getting better has helped improve the investor outlook towards Brazilian risk assets," said Mauricio Une, senior economist at Rabobank. Brazil"s central bank intervened in the spot foreign exchange market on Monday for the first time in two months after the currency slipped to a one-month low against the dollar. But the currency is still one of the worst performing emerging market units this year, given that Brazil is among the worst afflicted by the coronavirus. The currencies of oil exporters Mexico and Colombia gained as oil prices rallied on hopes that expanding U.S. pandemic aid would spur fuel demand. Hopes of improving oil demand have aided the Mexican and Colombian pesos, while Chile"s peso is set to outperform its Latin American peers for the year, thanks to recovering copper demand. Latin American currencies have recovered from pandemic-driven lows. But they have severely underperformed their broader emerging market peers over concerns about fiscal health and the rampant spread of the virus in the continent. Most regional stocks have also followed a similar trend. But the MSCI"s index of regional stocks rose nearly 2% for the day. Latin American stock indexes and currencies: Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1266.32 1.12 MSCI LatAm 2463.50 1.91 Brazil Bovespa 119480.21 0.3 Mexico IPC 44637.92 1.72 Chile IPSA 4198.15 0.43 Argentina MerVal 51538.77 2.09 Colombia COLCAP 1439.13 0.56 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.1903 0.93 Mexico peso 19.9370 0.32 Chile peso 714.4 -0.35 Colombia peso 3472.93 0.67 Peru sol 3.618 -0.03 Argentina peso 84.0200 -0.13 (interbank) (Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis and Grant McCool)

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