11.03.201820:17:00UTC+00ARGENTINA: Merval Rises 1.09% And Surpasses 33,000 Points

Merval, the main index of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, rose 1.09% to 33,182.31 points Friday, strongly boosted by quarterly results, corporate news and the rise in stock markets abroad. In the week, the Merval gained 3.97%.

"The best of the day was in the first hour of operations, when the index amounted to 33,498 points, at that time rising by 2.00%," said Eduardo Fern?ndez, an analyst at Rava Burs?til. Past noon, the stock market lost intensity amid a lower trading volume, he added.

Mirgor recorded an 887 million pesos net profit, below market expectations of 1 billion pesos gains. Agrometal lost ground as a repercussion of the new duties imposed by the United States on steel and aluminum imports.

Grupo Galicia, meanwhile, rose after the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the Argentinean Republic (BCRA) announced the restructuring of Banco Finansur, transferring the assets and privileged liabilities of this financial entity to Banco Galicia.

The shares of Grupo Galicia (+3.63%), Transener (+3.11%), Tenaris (+3.02%), and Petrobras (+2.73%) rose, while Agrometal (-3.76%) and Mirgor (-3.62%) recorded the worst losses.

The locally traded U.S. dollar closed down 0.58%, quoted at 20.24 Argentinean pesos, in a session marked by a new intervention by the central bank to interrupt the local currency devaluation. According to Fernando Izzo, an analyst at ABC Mercado de Cambios, the central bank achieved its goal despite the sales of the week.