Lima Stock Exchange closes with gains while attention is focused on the Fed meeting

The Lima Stock Exchange (BVL) closed Monday’s session with gains, at the beginning of a week in which the markets’ attention will be focused on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting.

At the end of the operations, the S&P/BVL Peru General Index, the most representative of the Lima stock market, rose by 0.61% to 21,095.21 points.

Similarly, the S&P/BVL Peru Selective Index, which is made up of the most traded shares in the local market, fell by 1.03% and stood at 555.19 units.

During the session, shares of 58 companies were quoted, of which 30 rose, 13 fell and 15 did not register a variation.

All sectors presented gains: financial (1.10%), industrial (0.30%), construction (0.22%), mining (0.21%), consumption (0.21%), services (0.19%) and electricity (0.19%).

Among the local stocks that rose the most, Compañía de Minas Buenaventura (3.27%), Alicorp (0.80%) and Luz del Sur (0.67%) stood out.

In contrast, those that fell are Compañía de Minsur (-3.33%) and Unacem Corp (-0.58%).

US stocks fell on Monday on the last trading day of October, but still closed the month firmly higher as it began a busy week for Fed, earnings and jobs data. The S&P 500 declined 0.7%, while the Dow Jones shed roughly 130 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1%.

César Romero, Head of Research at Renta4 SAB, points out that equity markets still rounded the month higher after a brutal fall in September. The Dow closed October with a gain of 13.96%, its best monthly advance since January 1976 and its 10th best month in the last century.

The Fed’s next policy announcement on Wednesday and October’s monthly employment report to be released on Friday will determine whether the market continues to rally through the rest of 2022.

Most of the currencies of Latin America fell on Monday while the bulk of the stock markets exhibited gains, in the midst of a global advance of the dollar and at the beginning of a week in which the attention of the markets will be focused on the meeting of monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

According to Reuters, the dollar advanced as bets cooled that the Fed might signal a slowdown in its aggressive rate-hike cycle ahead of its key monetary policy meeting this week and as national data points to a pressure on core inflation.

The US currency advanced around 0.55% against a basket of six major currencies that make up the dollar index.