SOVEREIGN DOLLAR DEBT EXTENDED ITS BUYING TONE, sharply compressing country risk amid a favorable external backdrop for risk assets. The flip side was equities, which closed lower, dragged by the energy sector, while FX rates posted mild gains and the Central Bank resumed dollar purchases after the seasonal month-end drain.
HARD-DOLLAR SOVEREIGNS OPENED THE WEEK HIGHER, with the general index up 0.7%. Globales gained 0.7% and Bonares 0.6% on a day when emerging market debt barely moved. Against a backdrop of falling long-term U.S. rates, country risk deepened its compression, closing at 411bp, twenty points below Friday's 430bp. Bopreal bucked the trend, slipping 0.7% in MEP dollar terms.
PESO CURVES TRADED MIXED IN USD TERMS, with dollar-linked notes leading at 0.2%, fixed-rate notes down 0.1%, while CER and dual bonds closed essentially flat, down around 0.2% once adjusted for the CCL move. Overall, a low-volume session with narrow moves across all tenors.
THE OFFICIAL DOLLAR ROSE 0.3% TO CLOSE AT $1,493.44. Among financial rates, the MEP dollar advanced 0.4% to $1,525.31 and the CCL rose 0.2% to $1,578.20, with the exchange spread at 3.5%. The Central Bank bought USD 18M in the session, and gross reserves rose USD 1,780M to USD 49,376M, recovering ground lost in late July from the seasonal reserve-requirement drain.
THE MERVAL FELL 0.7% IN DOLLAR TERMS (-0.5% in pesos), to the equivalent of 2,075 points. The financial segment gained 0.5% in USD terms, led by Galicia, Macro and Transener, while energy dropped 2.3% in USD terms, concentrating the bulk of the losses. The picture was similar among ADRs, with AdecoAgro falling 4.9%, Vista 3.2% and YPF 2.8%, against gains in Bioceres, Galicia and Globant.
