Most Emerging-Market Stocks Decline on Ukraine as Ruble Tumbles
Emerging-market stocks rose,
following the longest weekly rally in a month, as state-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA led Brazil’s
Ibovespa to the biggest gain among world equity indexes.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.2 percent to
1,003.63 at 11:55 a.m. in New York, after a three-week jump. The
Ibovespa advanced to a four-month high and Petrobras climbed 3.9
percent as a poll showed reduced support for President Dilma Rousseff. Russia’s dollar-denominated RTS Index fell the most
among 94 gauges, while the ruble extended this year’s slide to
7.7 percent on concern the crisis in Ukraine will escalate as
Pro-Russian separatists seized administration buildings.
Brazil’s benchmark stock measure has gained 15 percent
since slumping into a bear market on March 14, led by state-owned companies. Rousseff’s support fell to 38 percent from 44
percent in February in a Datafolha poll that pitted her against
opposition candidates Aecio Neves and Eduardo Campos. Stocks
fell earlier today as Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
said Russia was trying to split up the nation.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF advanced 0.6
percent to $41.53. The premium investors demand to own emerging-market debt over U.S. Treasuries rose 0.02 percentage point to
292 basis points, according to JPMorgan Chase Co.
Russia, Turkey
Russia’s Micex Index dropped 2.4 percent, led by OAO
Sberbank, while the ruble fell the most among 31 world major
currencies. The situation in Ukraine risks worsening the
“bleak” prospects for Russia’s economy and may keep pressure
on the ruble this week, Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist for
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States at ING Groep
NV in Moscow, said in an e-mailed note.
Brazil’s Ibovespa rose 1.5 percent as Petrobras rallied for
a second day. Cia. Brasileira de Distribuicao Grupo Pao de
Acucar advanced to a three-month high after Deutsche Bank AG
recommended buying the retailer’s shares.
Hong Kong stocks fell, with the benchmark index posting a
second day of declines, as casinos slipped and Tencent Holdings
Ltd. (700) dropped amid a global selloff in technology shares.
Mainland markets were closed for a holiday.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Julia Leite in New York at
jleite3@bloomberg.net;
Natasha Doff in London at
ndoff@bloomberg.net;
Harry Suhartono in Jakarta at
hsuhartono@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Tal Barak Harif at
tbarak@bloomberg.net
Rita Nazareth, Zahra Hankir