The Colombian peso appreciated Wednesday as some investors started to buy pesos again after a two-day selloff.
The peso had weakened 4% on Monday and Tuesday.
“During the
two previous days, there was very low volumes traded, with very few
buyers, so the peso depreciated a bit too much,” German Verdugo, a
market analyst with local brokerage Correval SA, said.
At those levels, investors found the currency attractive, he added.
The yield on the benchmark 2020 Colombian peso-denominated government bond rose to 11.90% from 12.01% on Tuesday.
The swap of short-term bonds with longer term ones carried out by the
government Wednesday boosted investors’ confidence towards government
bonds, Verdugo said.
The IGBC stock index rose 0.5% to 9,296.88 points, led by shares of
state-owned oil company Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETROL.BO), which gained 1.4%
to COP2,600.
The stock exchange Wednesday revised the basket of its benchmark IGBC
index for the fourth quarter and boosted the weight of Ecopetrol to
47%. This pushed some investors to buy more shares of Ecopetrol to try
to replicate the index’s behavior, said Andres Jimenez, a
Medellin-based analyst with local brokerage Interbolsa SA.
