Argentina's GDP Warrants Rebound After Chaco Incident

--GDP Warrants rebound after three days of losses

--Stocks close higher, led by steel producer Siderar

--Peso weakens a bit

 
   By Taos Turner 
 

BUENOS AIRES--Argentina's GDP warrants rebounded Thursday after three consecutive days of declines.

The securities, which are tied to economic growth, plunged earlier this week after investors learned that Chaco province had made a U.S. dollar-denominated bond payment in pesos because it couldn't get central bank approval to buy dollars.

The TVPA GDP warrant rose 3% to ARS77.25; the TVPP rose 0.87% to ARS14.43; the TVPY rose 1.65% to ARS79.30.

Last week, Chaco paid interest and principal in pesos on its dollar-denominated bonds after it fell victim to an almost year-old crackdown on the foreign currency market.

The payment raised concern that other dollar-denominated bond payments night also be converted into pesos.

Stocks gained ground.

The Merval index rose 1.24% to 2417.62 in minimal volume totaling ARS20 million ($4.23 million).

Steel producer Siderar SAIC (ERAR.BA) led the gains, rising 3.84% to ARS1.35.

The most traded shares belonged to the financial conglomerate Grupo Financiero Galicia SA (GGAL.BA, GGAL), which rose 2.55% to ARS3.61. Steel producer Tenaris (TS, TEN.MI) was unchanged at ARS127.

Power distributor Edenor (EDN.BA) led the declines, falling 0.59% to ARS0.665.

The peso weakened to ARS4.7205 to the U.S. dollar on the MAE foreign-exchange wholesale market, compared with ARS4.7160 in the previous session. On the black market, Argentines were paying between ARS6.20 and ARS6.21 a dollar, according to financial newspaper El Cronista.

Write to Taos Turner at [e-mail]