Argentine stocks fall on pension takeover news

Tue Nov 4, 2008 2:20 PM EST

business, wall-street, lt, markets, latin-america, latin-american, latam

BUENOS AIRES — Argentine stocks fell Wednesday after lawmakers approved a plan to nationalize pension funds. But other Latin American markets made modest gains despite continued concerns about the downturn in the global economy.

The Merval index took a nosedive when markets opened in Buenos Aires, touching bottom at 6.6 percent off opening levels. The index recovered somewhat in the afternoon, but still closed down 3.5 percent at 1,097.

Argentina's lower house passed the pension-takeover bill overnight, and the Senate also is expected to approve the measure to bring under state control $23 billion currently controlled by 10 private pension funds.

Brazil's benchmark stock index closed up 0.8 percent at 36,665 after two days of losses. The Ibovespa plummeted 3.8 percent Thursday on worries about the continuing global downturn.

A new Brazilian government report says inflation jumped 0.45 percent in October, the first time prices have risen in four months. Brazil's currency, the real, strengthened slightly against the U.S. dollar.

Mexico's main IPC index ended the day up 1.1 percent to 19,865, while the peso was nearly flat at 12.8 to the dollar.

The country's central bank reported that annual inflation reached 5.8 percent in October, its highest level in seven years.

Chile's Ipsa rose 1.9 percent to 2,575, and Colombia's IGBC gained 4.1 percent to 7,152.