The Colombian benchmark stock index rose above 11,000 points on Friday amid an increasing appetite for local stocks.
The IGBC was up 0.5% to 11,009.89 points as of 10:43 a.m. EDT. The index hasn’t closed above 11,000 points since Nov. 30, 2007.
“There is an excess of liquidity in the local market, and the returns on fixed income are so low that people prefer to buy stocks,” said Felipe Campos, a market analyst with local brokerage Alianza Valores.
He added the market shows optimism that the economic crisis wasn’t as severe as originally feared and that the recovery seems under way.
On Thursday, the Colombian statistics department said the country’s gross domestic product contracted 0.5% in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2008, but it expanded 0.7% compared with the previous quarter. Analysts and government officials have said the data show a recovery is slowly starting.
Shares of state-controlled telephone company Empresa de Telecomuniaciones de Bogota SA rose 4.2% to 1,125 Colombian pesos (US$0.58).
On the currency market, the peso was strengthening to COP1,925.60 to the dollar from COP1,928.1 on Thursday. On the debt market, the yield on the peso-denominated government bond maturing in 2020 was down to 9.113% from 9.14% on Thursday.