MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latam markets end with sustained recovery and more confidence

Latin American stocks rose on Thursday after bargain-hunting and improving US jobs data gave the market some relief. Investors swept up shares battered by the recent market rout that had knocked about 18% off the MSCI Latin America stock index since last week.

Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index rose 3.79%. The index has rallied nearly 10% from its Monday close that left it at its cheapest since April 2009.

The Bovespa has been punished much more than Latin America's other stock markets due to concerns that Brazilian inflation is slipping out of policymakers' control and will eat into economic expansion.

Among stocks rising in Sao Paulo were common shares of Vale, the world's biggest producer of iron ore, up 4.32%. State-controlled Petrobras advanced 2.43%.

Shares of Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical company, surged 5.56% after the company reported a record level of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.

Mexico's IPC index finance/markets climbed 4.26% to add up to a nearly 6% come-back this week off a nearly one-year low.

Billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil, one of the world's top telecoms, gained 4.48% and Walmex, Mexico's leading retailer, rose 3.81%.

Chile's IPSA index .IPSA jumped 2.65%, bringing its three-day winning streak to a more than 11%. Fertilizer, lithium and iodine producer SQM was up 4.07%.

Argentina’s Merval was up 4.95% after having dropped 1.89% on Wednesday. Lima’s stock exchange rose 3.7%, the highest in three weeks and Colombia’s market was up a modest 0.16%.

Meanwhile US and European shares were up although in volatile trading on concerns with the Euro zone debt.

Wall Street's main Dow Jones index ended up 3.9%, helped by jobs data, the Nasdaq climbed 4.69% and S&P, 4.61%.

The UK's FTSE 100 ended up 3.1%. Germany's Dax added 3.3% and France's Cac rose 2.5%. Madrid was up 3.56% and Milan, 4.10%.