Argentine Stocks Fall Most in Americas on Mutual Fund Regulation
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Merval pared gains after dropping as much as 9 percent earlier
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Securities regulator changes valuation standards for funds
Argentina’s benchmark Merval stock index posted the biggest decline in the Americas as traders that use some of the securities to obtain foreign currency sold their assets following a rule change by regulators.
The Merval tumbled as much as 9 percent and traded 2.8 percent lower at a seven-month low as of 4:30 p.m. in Buenos Aires. The drop was the sixth-biggest in the world among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
A Sept. 21 resolution from Argentina’s CNV securities regulator ordering mutual funds to value dollar-denominated holdings at the official rate of 9.4 pesos per dollar rather than the blue-chip swap rate used for financial transactions is at the root of the selloff. The move was seen by some investors as an attempt to bolster the peso in the parallel market, where it takes 13.3 pesos to obtain a greenback. Stocks normally drop when the currency rises in that market…
Argentine Stocks Fall Most in Americas on Mutual Fund Regulation
