COP Casino Guichard Perrachon

By Carla Mozee

Major Latin American markets gained ground Wednesday, with Mexican home builders finding support from comments by a major ratings agency about stabilization in the sector.

Latin American markets largely held on to gains after minutes released from the U.S. Federal Reserve's most recent meeting showed policy makers are more confident that the downturn in the economy is nearing an end, but remain unsure about the strength of recovery.

Investors also appeared to have set aside a report that the U.S. private sector shed 298,000 jobs in August, as well as a separate government report that factory orders rose by a less-than-expected 1.3% in July.

Mexico's IPC equity index rose 0.7% to 27,927 as investors hunted for bargains following two sessions of declines that resulted in a 3% fall in the benchmark.

Mining stocks led advancers, with shares of Grupo Mexico shares up 3.5%. They added to their 14% surge from the previous session after a judge's ruling puts the company closer to regaining control of Asarco LLC, an Arizona mining company that it had lost control of in 2005 in the wake of Asarco's bankruptcy filing.

Miner Industrias Penoles rose 4.5%, and Compania Minera Autlan gained 1%.

Shares of home builder Desarrolladora Homex (HXM) advanced 3.3% and Urbi Desarrollos rose 1.2% after Moody's Investors Service said it has a stable outlook on the Mexican housing sector as it's "well positioned to weather the recession over the intermediate term."

Housing prices, unlike in the U.S., have remained stable and continue to trend with inflation, said Moody's, while demand for housing, particularly in the low-income category, continues to be robust.

"A full recovery will, however, depend on the future health of the Mexican economy and the government's continued support of the housing sector," wrote Griselda Bisonó, an analyst at Moody's, in a report.

Shares of home builder Consorcio Ara, however, slipped 0.3%.

Brazil's Bovespa pulled out of narrow loss to rise 0.2% to 55,885 following the release of the Federal Reserve minutes.

Market heavyweight Petrobras' (PBR) shares climbed 2.4% after BP (BP) said it made a "giant" discovery of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Petrobras said in a statement that its Petrobras America subsidiary holds a 20% stake in the project. ConocoPhillips (COP) holds an 18% stake and BP has a 62% stake.

Meanwhile, sugar and ethanol producer Cosan was upgraded to overweight from neutral at HSBC Global Research. The broker also raised its price targets on Cosan's U.S.-listed shares (CZZ) to $11 from $4.50, and Cosan's shares traded in Sao Paulo, saying in part that global sugar fundamentals should remain strong in fiscal 2010 ending in March, and in fiscal year 2011.

Cosan's locally traded shares were last off 0.2%.

Market players were also awaiting a decision by the Brazilian central bank on interest rates. Policy makers are widely expected to hold the key Selic rate steady at its historic low of 8.75%.

Chile's IPSA rose 0.6% to 3,150 and Argentina's Merval rose 0.2% to 1,749.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose less than 1 point to 998, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 3 points to 9,313.