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DOLLAR-DENOMINATED SOVEREIGN BONDS ROSE JUST 0.1%, underperforming emerging market debt, although the short end of the Globales curve advanced 0.6%. With this performance, country risk stood at 535 bps, slightly above Tuesday's close. Meanwhile, Bopreales declined 0.1%.
ARS-DENOMINATED DEBT TRADED PRACTICALLY NEUTRAL ACROSS ALL SEGMENTS, except for dollar-linked instruments, which rose 0.8%. Both the CER curve and Lecaps fell marginally, while Duales dropped 0.4%. As for overnight rates, they continue to trade around 20% NAR, while the TAMAR stood at 22.4% NAR.
THE OFFICIAL EXCHANGE RATE DECLINED 0.1%, closing at $1,378.13, standing 22.7% below the upper band. However, financial dollars traded higher: the MEP rose 0.3% and the CCL 0.2%, ending at $1,418 and $1,465.3, respectively, while the spread narrowed to 3.3%. Meanwhile, the BCRA purchased USD 105 M in the MLC, in a session in which the agricultural sector settled USD 100 M. With these operations, the BCRA has accumulated purchases of USD 2,105 M for the month, while year-to-date the total reaches USD 6,487 M.
THE MERVAL DECLINED 1.4% IN PESOS AND 1.6% IN DOLLARS, standing at USD 1,967. The largest declines were seen in the Financial, Consumer Staples and Utilities sectors, while Communication, Industrials and Energy posted the best performance. Among local panel stocks, BBVA (-5.5%), Edenor (-3.6%) and Banco Macro (-3.3%) led the declines, while Aluar (+1%), Telecom (+0.8%) and COME (+0.4%) posted the largest gains. Among stocks trading in New York, the average fell 1.2%, with BBVA (-6%), Globant (-5.2%) and Banco Macro (-4.1%) as the main losers, while Bioceres (+5.6%), Vista (+1.2%) and Ternium (+1%) led the gains.
IN FEBRUARY, ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AS MEASURED BY THE EMAE FELL 2.6% M/M —the worst drop since December 2023— and 2.1% YoY, decelerating from January's 1.7% YoY advance and bringing the two-month cumulative figure to -0.2% YoY. With this result, the economy retreated to the levels of July of last year. Labor-intensive sectors led the declines, with manufacturing and commerce falling 8.7% YoY and 7.0% YoY, respectively. Conversely, capital-intensive sectors sustained their momentum: mining advanced 9.9% YoY driven by Vaca Muerta, agriculture contributed 8.4% YoY and the financial sector grew 6% YoY.
