In the midst of the market readjustment to the new monetary policy rates, the Central Bank extended its purchasing spree. As of Tuesday, he had $297 million left for his interventions in and with the wholesale market accumulates more than 10,000 million dollars in the first three months after the devaluation of December 13th.
The foreign exchange market seems to have “normalized” after shock due to the drop in rates on Monday evening and resumed the trend it had shown in the previous days. In a round in which the volume operated in the MLC returned to usual levels, the organization chaired by Santiago Bausili made its second largest purchase so far in March. In the month it thus accumulates a positive balance of 1,757 million dollars.
The accumulation of dollars for reserves was one of the reasons given by the organization to justify the change in monetary policy effective this week. In the statement released on Friday evening, the Central Bank underlined that since December 10 it has added reserves while in the first quarter of 2023 the organization’s coffers had decreased by more than 23 billion dollars.
“These purchases contribute to a build-up of since that date the net international reserves amount to 8.4 billion dollarscompared to the target of 6 billion dollars foreseen in the economic and financial policy memorandum signed with the IMF for the first quarter of 2024″, Central had underlined at the beginning of the week.
Pablo Repetto, of Aurum Valores, explained: “The Fund’s objective for this month is overfull. Not counting gold and grades, net reserves as of March 13 would be negative $4,856 million.”
Tuesday’s purchases came on a day in which $452 million was traded in the cash segment and another $361 million in the futures segment. Regarding the behavior of the wheel in the MULC, the stock trader Gustavo Quintana, underlined this Tuesday: “The activity seemed to normalize. There were very strong export earnings, purchases so important, I think the path of The normality”.
In the parallel market, though the blue dollar jumped again to close at $1,035financial prices deflated and returned to the red levels they had shown in most months of the month. The MEP dollar fell 2.3% and returned to $1,012; while cash with settlement fell by 1.3% and settled just above $1,053.
In the City it was believed that Tuesday’s rebound would have a temporary effect and that the “superweight” had reasons to survive. The exchange rate gap, which had increased one notch on Tuesday, returned to 23.9%.
In this sense, the economist Gustavo Ber stated: “The parallel slide of the exchange rate – after the sharp decline of recent months – and also considering the push provided by the lower rates would be orderly, so the short-term “gap” would not arrive at ~30%, one level would be more comfortable.”
In the stock market segment, stocks and bonds recorded strong gains. The Merval, expressed in dollars, rose by 3.7% and was close to 1,000 dollars, while Argentine debt rose by 2.5% and the country risk stood below 1,600 points.
Source: Clarin
