MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil and Argentina markets suffer record day losses

Stock markets in Latinamerica crashed on black Monday 29, following the US House of Representatives rejection of the bi partisan bail out package which had been painfully stitched over the weekend.

Brazil's Bovespa suffered its greatest loss in one day since 1999. Trading dropped 13.8% before beginning to recover towards the end of the day. Before President Lula da Silva had to come out and insist that the global financial crisis would have a limited contagion for Brazil. Trading had to be stopped for 30 minutes after the crash reached the 10% threshold but once restarted continued to fall until at the end of the day the index settled at 46.028 points, down 9.4%. On January 14, 1999, Bovespa also crashed 10% when trading was stopped. All industries lost ground particularly steel makers and the world's largest iron ore producer Vae do Rio Doce SA. This was motivated by fears that the world slowdown might affect directly the steel and construction industries. In Argentina the MERVAL index skid 8.7% and in Mexico the IPC, 6.4%; in Chile the loss was 5.7% and in Colombia, 2.37%. For Chile it was the worst daily fall in a decade and for Argentina's Merval the blackest day since February 11, 2002 when the market crashed 10.68%. The Argentine stock exchange has lost 13,5% in September and 30% since the beginning of the year. As happened with Sao Paulo, steel, oil and banks were the stocks which most suffered.