The Colombian peso weakened considerably as pension funds demanded dollars in a bid to weaken the peso before the year ends.
The Colombian peso Monday ended at 2,251 to the dollar – from
COP2,216.30 on Friday – in a session that traded $525 million, about
half of the usual volume.
“Pension funds are pressuring the
peso in a bid to increase in value their dollar portfolios,” said Cesar
Tovar, analyst at the local unit of Stanford Group. “As there are no
market participants selling dollars, the few demands for greenbacks
weakened the currency.”
Many investors and market participants went on vacation to celebrate
Christmas and New Year’s Day; the majority will be back Jan. 13.
Colombian markets and government offices will close on Dec. 31 and Jan.
1 for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Markets will resume on Jan. 2,
when the statistics department will release 2008 and December inflation
figures.
Meanwhile, the IGBC stock index fell 0.5% to 7,522.52 after a session with a low volume of COP57.6 billion.
Colombian construction company Grupo Odinsa SA (ODINSA.BO) fell 3.1% to
COP60,000, followed by state-owned oil company Ecopetrol
(ECOPETROL.BO), which declined 0.3% to COP2,000.
In the local bond market, the yield on the benchmark peso-denominated
bond, known as TES, maturing in 2020 ended at 10.649% from 10.609% on
Wednesday, the last day it had traded. (Dow Jones)