MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Markets world-wide soar on Citicorp rescue plan effect

The Citicorp rescue effect which had markets soaring in Europe and United States also impacted in Latinamerica. Brazil's Bovespa was up 9.8% on Monday recovering most last week's losses and the Mexican IPC rose 7%.

Argentina's Merval jumped 8.79%, the highest increase since October 14, helping to cut into last week's five days running losses of 18.95%. In Chile the stock market reaction was more modest, 2%, but the Chilean peso made a strong recovery against the US dollar, as happened with the Brazilian Real and the Mexican peso. Monday's rally was marked by London's FTSE 100 Index of leading shares which soared by a record 9.8% or 372.1 points at 4153, the biggest percentage gain in its history. In Paris, the Cac 40 index jumped 10.1% and in Frankfurt the DAX advanced 10.3%. On Wall Street, the key Dow Jones added almost 5% and the Nasdaq index gained 6% and S&P 6.74%, extending the rally seen on Friday. Shares in Citigroup have jumped by almost 60% as investors welcomed the US government's rescue plan for the bank. The US Treasury is set to invest $20bn (£13.4bn) in return for preferred shares in the troubled banking giant. In Britain, the government announced a stimulus plan has temporarily cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% as part of an £20bn package aimed at kick-starting the economy. Energy stocks also got a boost as the price of crude oil surged towards 55 US dollars a barrel.