Colombia stocks declined along with other Latin American markets Friday as a better-than-forecast U.S. jobs report wasn’t enough to offset lingering concerns about Europe’s debt problems.
The Colcap index, considered the Colombian Stock Exchange’s benchmark index, fell 0.37% to close at 1,583.86 points.
Shares of Bancolombia SA, Colombia’s largest lending institution, bucked the market’s downward trend, gaining 2.5% to close at COP27,880. Demand for loans remains strong in Colombia despite a global downturn, with credit growth rising 24% in August, year on year.
The Colombian peso, meanwhile, closed higher for the third session in a row Friday after hitting its weakest level of the year Tuesday. It closed at COP1,936.90 to the dollar from COP1,947.80 a day earlier. The peso is 8% weaker from the end of August, a move Colombia’s government has been happy with given it’s been fighting excessive peso strength for more than a year.
The yield on Colombia’s peso-denominated bond due July 2024 closed at 7.595%, after opening the session at 7.610%.
