* Colombian peso firms as much as 0.9%
* Brazil's real shrugs off early losses
* Argentina pushes Paris Club group of lenders deadline to
2022
By Susan Mathew
June 23 (Reuters) - Rising oil prices bolstered the
Colombian peso's move away from seven-week lows on Wednesday,
leading gains among Latin American peers as the dollar extended
losses following reassurances that the U.S. Federal Reserve
would not rush into policy tightening.
The Andean country's currency firmed up to 0.9% as
crude prices hit their highest since late 2018, after an
industry report on U.S. crude inventories reinforced views of a
tightening market as travel picks up in Europe and North
America.
That also helped lift fellow oil exporter Mexico's peso
to its third straight session of gains leading up to a
central bank meeting on Thursday.
The central bank is seen keeping its benchmark interest rate
steady at 4.0% amid persistently high inflation levels in the
economy as it recovers from a coronavirus pandemic slump.
"We believe that the trend in hawkishness from Banxico
should continue, but the devil will be in the details," said
Sacha Tihanyi, head of emerging market strategy at TD
Securities, citing the recent uptick in inflation trajectory.
"We ... expect any positive increment in hawkish sentiment
to help underpin a stabilization and rebound in the peso".
As the dollar looked to extend losses to the third
straight session, Brazil's real shrugged off early losses
to rise 0.4% to hit its highest in a year, while Peru's sol
stayed close to two-week lows.
The sol has lost nearly 9% this year, weakened by
presidential election uncertainty. A final winner is yet to be
declared amid accusations of fraud by conservative candidate
Keiko Fujimori. Washington on Tuesday called the elections fair.
Argentina said on Tuesday it had reached an understanding
with the Paris Club group of lenders for a payment bridge until
March 2022 to settle some $2.4 billion it owes, and it would
make a partial payment in the interim period. Mired in recession
since 2018, the country is racing to push back some $45 billion
in repayments owed to the Fund.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1404 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily %
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1363.57 1.24
MSCI LatAm 2682.21 2.3
Brazil Bovespa 129677.56 0.71
Mexico IPC 50153.28 0.05
Chile IPSA 4400.65 0.67
Argentina MerVal - -
Colombia COLCAP 1250.11 0.6
Currencies Latest Daily %
change
Brazil real 4.9460 0.39
Mexico peso 20.2380 0.48
Chile peso 735.8 0.69
Colombia peso 3755.85 0.62
Peru sol 3.9698 0.23
Argentina peso 95.5200 -0.02
(interbank)
(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan
Oatis)
