Argentine markets improve in cautious climate due to debt restructuring

BUENOS AIRES, May 7 (Reuters) – Argentina’s markets were improving on Thursday in a cautious and selective business context pending definitions by creditors around an ambitious sovereign debt restructuring plan for 65,000 million dollars that ends this week .

“Just one day to go until the government’s proposed offer acceptance deadline expires, local bonds continue to recover from optimistic signals in the negotiations,” brokerage firm Portfolio Personal Inversiones said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is not involved in the negotiation between the country and creditors, is confident that Argentina will reach an agreement to restructure its sovereign debt with high acceptance by creditors, an agency spokesman said.

* Bonds in the local OTC market were up 0.6% on average in a selective and speculative business market, where dollar-denominated bonds were leading the trend, traders said.

* The Argentine country risk benchmark, measured by the JP.Morgan bank, fell 55 basis points to 3,319 units at 12.05 local time (1505 GMT).

* The S&P Merval index of the Buenos Aires stock exchange grew 0.6% to 34,363.97 units, led by the improvement registered in energy and financial stocks. Shares of state oil company YPF rose 5.11%.

* The interbank peso returned to record historical minimum values, depreciating 0.13%, to 67.18 / 67.19 units per dollar.

* The central bank, which intervenes daily in the market with liquidity regulation operations, sold in April 546.2 million dollars of its reserves, compared to purchases of 135.12 million registered in March.

* The ‘cash with liquidation’ operation, which serves to leak foreign currency through assets in the face of exchange controls, operated at around 118.65 pesos for every dollar and the weight in the marginal exchange market remained at its historical minimum level of 117/122 per dollar.

(Report by Walter Bianchi Edited by Maximilian Heath)