Category: Regions

Mexican stocks jumped 1.43 percent to a record high close of 15,246 Wednesday, helped by telecom companies, retailer Walmex and a rally in home builder Sare ahead of a share offer. Investors have snatched up Mexican stocks this week amid expectations that US interest rates may rise slower than expected following the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Wal-Mart de Mexico, Latin America’s largest retailer, is considering 371 cities as locations for new stores, said Chief Executive Eduardo Solorzano. The company plans to open 90 stores by yearend, including 12 Wal-Mart Supercenters, as it shifts its growth strategy from large urban centers to small cities in Mexico.

The World Bank approved a $200 million fixed-spread loan to finance sustainable development programs in Mexico. The loan, which is the second in a series of three to be extended to the country within five years, has a repayment period of 14 and a half years and includes a grace term of 4 years.

Mexican President Vicente Fox’s proposed spending plan for 2006 seeks to use revenue from record high oil prices to reduce the nation’s international debt to 6.8 percent of GDP, its lowest level in more than three decades. Foreign-currency debt represented 9.8 percent of GDP in June. Fox is proposing total government spending next year of $176 billion, about the same in real terms as what was approved by congress for this year.

Mexican state-run oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos will invest $105 million in the rebellious southern state of Chiapas, with most of the money going to improve security at the company´s installations. Pemex will build a new fuel storage and distribution facility in Tapachula and will spend an addition $16 million to finance road projects in the area.

State-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro said it will reopen five of its six oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico within a week. Petrobras normally pumps 6,500 barrels of oil a day from fields off the US states of Texas and Louisiana.

Brent crude oil for October settlement fell $1.21 to $64.85 a barrel on London’s International Petroleum Exchange Monday after producers resumed output in the Gulf of Mexico and the International Energy Agency pledged to release emergency reserves. BP’s Holstein platform in the Gulf has started production, while Royal Dutch Shell and Marathon Oil resumed processing at two refineries in Louisiana over the weekend.