The Colombian Colcap shed 0.74% in trading today as the slide continued this week.
While the world news was focused on the leaders of the U.S., U.K., and France showing their fortitude to remove Col. Gadhafi, oil rose to over $108/barrel.
In Colombia, despite oil’s rise it was the petroleum companies leading the market down. Cancacol again took the largest loses on the day, down 3.95%, and was followed by Pacific Rubiales and Ecopetrol.
Grupo Suramericana, while not up significantly on the day led the market in volume, about USD $88 million in total was traded on the Colombian Exchange today.
The S&P500 ticked up by the slightest amount today as it rose 0.01%, the second day in a row for such a finish. Year to date the U.S. index is up 4.52%, thus outperforming some of the most promising emerging markets including Colombia and Brasil. European markets were mixed though largely down. New unemployment claims were reported in the U.S. today and hit 412,000 last week, the market had expected 380,000 leaving stocks in shaky territory all day.
The peso had a strong day as it picked up 13 pesos on the dollar to close at 1,806.00.
Oil closed over $108/barrel as NATO continued to bomb targets in Libya signaling the conflict will not be stopping anytime soon. Gold and Silver had very strong trading sessions as they gained 1.15% and 1.04%, respectively. At $1,471.70/ounce, gold is less than a 2% increase away from breaching $1,500 for the first time ever.