© Archyde.com/AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
Silhouette of the dome of the Argentine National Congress, in Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES, March 21 (Archyde.com) – The Argentine markets showed selectivity on Monday due to technical adjustments of positions pending the total closing of an agreement between the country and the IMF to restructure some 45,000 million dollars, amid global tensions due to the war situation in Ukraine.
Faced with galloping inflation, which reached 4.7% in February, Peronist President Alberto Fernández ordered an increase in agricultural withholdings and created a ‘Wheat Stabilizer Fund’ with the intention of controlling domestic prices.
“President Fernández announced the creation of a table
of dialogue with the productive sectors”, while “we await news from the IMF regarding the program”, said Paula Gándara of Adcap Asset Manager.
“February’s inflation exceeded all expectations and adds pressure to the central bank to raise rates this week,” while the “government focuses on CER (inflation-linked) bonds and achieves positive net financing,” he said.
The South American country agreed with the Fund to lengthen maturities, growth goals, lower inflation, strengthen the reserves of the central bank (BCRA) and quarterly reviews of public accounts.
The board of directors of the credit organization will meet on Friday to vote on the agreement, after the Argentine government obtained the approval of Congress last week in the face of internal political tensions that hit President Fernández’s coalition.
Meanwhile, Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán will travel to France to negotiate with the Paris Club a debt of some 2,000 million dollars, it was officially reported.
* Over-the-counter sovereign bonds fell 0.8% on average due to portfolio rearrangements, while the Argentine country risk prepared by the JP. Morgan bank remained balanced around 1,789 units towards 2000 GMT.
* “It seems that the Fund is helping the Government to have a bridge to the next Government. If we think that this program is the solution for Argentina, it seems to me that it is not”, affirmed Francisco Gismondi of Empiria Consultores.
* The S&P Merval Buenos Aires stock index improved by 1.10%, to 90,041.05 points as a provisional closing, led by energy companies in the face of a new increase in the world price of oil.
* The South Korean miner Posco announced on Monday that it will invest 4,000 million dollars in a lithium hydroxide project in Argentina, after meeting with local government authorities.
* Traders anticipate a BCRA rate hike this week, to get on track with the IMF’s request for positive yields against annual inflation, which is projected to be very close to 60% by 2022. A BCRA source told Archyde.com that still The day of the board meeting to analyze the issue has not been defined.
* Faced with this scenario, the interbank round showed a general preventive readjustment of around 0.25 points in the so-called “call money”, at levels of 33.75/33.45 percent per year for 24-hour business.
* In the exchange market, the wholesale peso lost 0.25%, to 109.96/109.97 per dollar, with regulated liquidity from the BCRA, which had to sell some 49 million dollars due to pressure from private investors and importers.
* The currency in the informal square gained slightly to 202 units, and in the alternative segments it operated at 198.8 in the stock market “counted with liquidation” (CCL) and 198.2 in the dynamic “dollar MEP”.
* The Argentine Commercial Exchange (ICA) would have recorded a positive balance of about 550 million dollars in February according to the median of a Archyde.com poll, compared to a positive result of 1,062 million dollars in the same month last year. The official data will be known on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Editing by Walter Bianchi)