Colombian stocks fell Wednesday, tracking a sell-off in U.S. markets triggered by fears over Europe’s sovereign-debt woes, while the peso weakened against the dollar.
The Colcap index, the benchmark for Colombia’s largest publicly-traded companies, fell 1.59% to 1581.37. The index is down 13.29% so far this year.
The decline Wednesday was led by Pacific Rubiales Energy, a Toronto-based oil firm that ranks as Colombia’s largest private oil producer. Shares of the firm plunged 5.41% to COP38,460.
The firm posted a 71% increase in its third-quarter net profit to $193.7 million on higher crude prices and output, but the output number was partly hobbled by a temporary halt in production in September at its largest oil field in Colombia due to labor protests.
Despite showing some disappointment with the results, brokerage firm InterBolsa SA said in a note that Pacific Rubiales “has one of the best set of fundamentals among the oil and gas companies operating in Colombia.”
Other stocks tracked a decline in U.S. shares spawned by fresh concerns about the health of the euro zone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 389.24 points, or 3.2%, to 11780.94, its biggest single-day decline since Sept. 22.
The Colombian peso, meanwhile, weakened against the dollar and closed at COP1,914.55 to the dollar from COP1,911.00 a day earlier.
The yield on the benchmark peso-denominated bond due in 2024 closed at 7.460% after opening at 7.503%.