By Bruno Federowski
BRASILIA, March 12 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks rose on
Monday as reports that Paper Excellence made a formal bid to
acquire Fibria SA propped up shares in the Brazilian wood pulp
producer.
Paper Excellence's bid values Fibria at 40 billion reais,
three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Fibria shares jumped 3.5 percent to an all-time high.
Shares of Suzano Papel e Celulose SA, which is
also negotiating a tie-up with Fibria, dropped 4.7 percent, the
largest decline in the benchmark Bovespa stock index,
which was up 0.3 percent.
Also helping to drive equity markets higher, shares of JBS
SA rose over 5 percent as bargain-hunting lifted
shares of food processors for a second straight day.
The sector suffered large losses earlier this month after
Brazilian police unveiled a probe into suspected fraud to evade
food safety checks at BRF SA, the world's largest
poultry exporter.
More widely, most Latin American stock and currency markets
were range-bound as traders awaited further developments of U.S.
President Donald Trump's protectionist plans, after he slapped
tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
How such policies would affect emerging market currencies is
not yet clear. While higher prices of imported goods could stoke
inflation and drive interest rates higher, they could also
weaken the ongoing economic recovery.
Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1720 GMT:
Stock indexes daily % YTD %
Latest change change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1222.06 1.23 4.21
MSCI LatAm 3123.19 -0.14 10.59
Brazil Bovespa 86590.40 0.25 13.34
Mexico S&P/BVM IPC 48831.29 0.57 -1.06
Chile IPSA 5642.18 0.09 1.39
Chile IGPA 28212.63 0.05 0.83
Argentina MerVal 33326.56 0.43 10.85
Colombia IGBC 11459.48 -0.36 0.78
Venezuela IBC 5374.95 4.97 -83.05
Currencies daily % YTD %
change change
Latest
Brazil real 3.2634 -0.40 -0.44
Mexico peso 18.6265 -0.09 11.37
Chile peso 603.8 -0.36 11.08
Colombia peso 2853.43 0.43 5.19
Peru sol 3.259 -0.03 4.76
Argentina peso (interbank) 20.2300 0.10 -21.53
Argentina peso (parallel) 20.64 -0.15 -18.51
(Reporting by Bruno Federowski; editing by Grant McCool)