Colombia’s benchmark blue-chip index rose Monday, buoyed by gains in U.S. stocks, while the peso strengthened modestly against the dollar.
The Colcap index, the benchmark for Colombia’s largest publicly traded firms, rose 0.74% Monday to end the day at 1669.47 points. The index is up 6.2% since the start of the year after declining 14% in 2011.
The gains Monday were triggered by the strong performance in U.S. stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73 points, or 0.6%, to 12874 points, after Greece’s parliament approved new austerity measures aimed at resolving the country’s debt crisis.
Bancolombia, the country’s largest lender, was among the most heavily traded shares in the Bogota bourse and posted a 0.8% increase to COP28,160. Ecopetrol SA, the state-run oil firm, rose 0.5% to close at COP4,755.
The Colombian peso, meanwhile, strengthened slightly against the dollar to close the session at COP1,778.20 from COP1,784 a day earlier. The yield on Colombia’s peso-denominated bond due July 2024 closed at 7.435%, after beginning the session at 7.390%.
