By Taos Turner
BUENOS AIRES--Argentine stocks closed higher Thursday as the top
three most-typically bought and sold shares continued to take up
most of the volume traded.
The Merval stock index rose 0.77% to 4,768.71 in volume totaling
ARS105 million ($18 million).
Steel producer Tenaris SA (TEN.MI, TS) rose over 2% to ARS229,
and Grupo Financiero Galicia SA (GGAL.BA, GGAL) rose over 1% to
ARS8.15. Telecom Argentina SA (TECO2.BA, TEO) fell almost 2.5% to
lead the declines.
Power company Pampa Energia SA (PAMP.BA, PAM) led the gains,
rising almost 3% to ARS1.78. Pampa's electricity distributor,
Edenor (EDN.BA), also gained, rising about 2% to ARS1.43. Both
companies had surged Monday on speculation Argentina's government
will raise utility rates sometime after a congressional election in
late October.
GDP warrants, or securities whose performance is tied to
economic growth, rose.
The TVPA GDP warrant rose 1.87% to ARS84.55, while the TVYO
warrant rose 0.97% to ARS77.14.
The Argentine peso closed at ARS5.757 to the U.S. dollar on the
regulated MAE foreign-exchange wholesale market.
The central bank intervenes in the exchange market daily to buy
dollars and build its foreign currency reserves, while gradually
weakening the peso to help exporters.
In the underground market, the peso strengthened a tad to
ARS9.39 to the dollar versus ARS9.40 the previous day, according to
the newspaper El Cronista, which publishes rates collected from
black-market traders.
Strict capital controls that limit the amount of foreign
currency Argentines can purchase legally have fueled a parallel
illegal market for dollars where people pay a steep premium for the
U.S. currency.
Write to Taos Turner at taos.turner@wsj.com