Colombia’s benchmark IGBC rose 1.3% to 12,046.44 points on Wednesday, the first time it has ever closed above 12,000 points. Colombian stocks were lifted by the rally on Wall Street and other world markets and on optimism about fourth-quarter economic data.
Colombian gross domestic product likely expanded at least 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, Central Bank Chairman Jose Dario Uribe said Wednesday. That would be the first quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2008.
“People are calm and they think the recovery is on a good way and it will continue,” said Monica Agudelo, a market analyst with local brokerage Asesores en Valores. “The economy is not yet fast expanding, but we are not in crisis anymore.”
Colombia’s statistics department will publish the fourth-quarter GDP data on March 25.
The Colcap index, which includes Colombia’s largest companies by market capitalization, rose 1.25% to 1,429.40 points.
On the debt markets, the yield on the benchmark peso-denominated government bond maturing in 2020 was unchanged at 8.818%.
The peso strengthened to COP1,893.20 against the dollar, from COP1,895 at Tuesday’s close. (Matthew Bristow / Dow Jones)