* Ecuador July 2035 bonds rise 13 points to 61 - trader
* Guillermo Lasso wins presidential runoff
* Peruvian sol slumps 2%
* Far-left Peruvian presidential candidate set to win
first-round
By Susan Mathew
April 12 (Reuters) - Most Latin American currencies firmed
on Monday against a weaker dollar, while bonds in Ecuador
rallied after banker Guillermo Lasso pulled off a surprise win
in Sunday's presidential runoff against socialist economist
Andres Arauz.
But Peru's sol currency and stocks tumbled after a far-left
candidate won the first round of that country's presidential
election on Sunday.
In Ecuador, Lasso took 52% of the vote in a runoff on
promises to revive the economy, following a campaign that pitted
his free market economic ideas against the social welfare plans
of economist Arauz.
Ecuadorean bonds dated July 2035 rose 13
points to 61, a trader said.
"I think in the short term, it is good," said Alejandro
Arevalo, emerging market debt manager at Jupiter Asset
Management.
"But... when you look at the economy, it is still very
fragile... So I do think that after the initial honeymoon stage,
investors will start to think, how does the country move
forward?"
PERUVIAN JOLT
In Peru, MSCI's Peru ETF was down almost 3% at
$35.16 in U.S. trading after the country's presidential vote
headed for a run-off with far-left candidate Pedro Castillo set
to win the Andean country's first round.
The Peruvian stock index fell 0.2%, while the
sol currency lost 2.07% at open to 3.68/3.70 per
dollar.
"Castillo's three pillars are pretty scary. He's talking
about nationalisation, about the government taking control of
the economy. He's in favour of governments or revolutions like
in Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, so it's something that could bring
significant volatility to the market, just to the bonds
overall," Jupiter Asset Management's Arevalo said.
"We have to wait for the final votes to be counted, but it's
definitely something negative for the market."
As the dollar weakened ahead of much awaited U.S. consumer
price inflation data, other Latam currencies firmed along with
the broader emerging market peers, with Mexico's peso
hovering near their highest since mid-February.
Brazil's real rose 0.4%, while higher oil prices
helped crude exporter Colombia's peso mark a positive
start to the week.
Climbing oil prices also propped up shares of Brazilian
state oil giant Petrobras, helping the country's main
stocks index outperform a rout in global stocks ahead of
U.S. inflation data and earnings.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1429 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily %
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1321.51 -0.67
MSCI LatAm 2343.10 0.26
Brazil Bovespa 118363.16 0.59
Mexico IPC 47460.83 -0.35
Chile IPSA 4926.46 -0.64
Argentina MerVal 48541.53 -0.623
Colombia COLCAP 1323.98 0.14
Currencies Latest Daily %
change
Brazil real 5.6480 0.44
Mexico peso 20.0940 0.26
Chile peso 706.8 0.68
Colombia peso 3648.03 0.27
Peru sol 3.685 -1.76
Argentina peso 92.5800 -0.15
(interbank)
(Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru and Tom Arnold in
London;
Editing by Gareth Jones)
Read More
