BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentina's stock market ended higher Thursday but the real action took place in the foreign-exchange market, where the central bank bought a record $262 million worth of U.S. dollars.The monetary authority bought the currency as exporters flooded the market with dollars earned from the sale of grain and oilseed products, a central bank official said.
"This is an absolute record since the opening of the currency market in 2002," the official said. "The trading in dollars is very strong."
The bank made the purchases in a bid to prevent the peso from changing its value too quickly, the official added.
The bank's intervention kept the peso steady at ARS3.9375 to the U.S. dollar, unchanged from the previous day.
Volume in the market totaled about $700 million, according to the official.
The bank has been buying large quantities of dollars in recent weeks and months as exporters sell a record harvest.
So far this month, the bank has bought more than $700 million worth of dollars, according to a report by Puente.
The purchases have allowed the central bank to accumulate more international reserves; on Thursday, the bank's reserves surpassed $50 billion, the official said.
This puts the central bank on track to soon surpass its March 2008 record of $50.517 billion.
The Merval stock index rose 1.08% to 2289.5.
Volume in the stock market totaled ARS30 million ($7.6 million).
Banco Hipotecario (BHIP.BA, BCOHY), Argentina's leading mortgage lender, led the gains by rising 3.42% to ARS1.51.
As usual, the index rose mostly because steel producer Tenaris (TS, TEN.MI), which accounts for 27% of the Merval's weighting, itself rose, climbing 1.35% to ARS75.
The benchmark peso-denominated bond rose 2.16% in price terms to ARS99, yielding 13.53%.
The Boden 2015, considered a good proxy for measuring the appeal of newly issued government bonds or the government's ability to sell new ones, rose 0.57% in price terms to ARS330.90, yielding 12.02%.
-By Taos Turner, Dow Jones Newswires; 5411-4103-6728; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100708-713222.html
