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By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Mexican peso touched its strongest against the dollar in nearly four months on Thursday as the U.S. currency continued to weaken, while Argentina's Merval stock index briefly broke above the 35,000-point mark for the first time.
Many emerging currencies hit multi-year highs against the greenback, with the dollar index languishing at more than three-year lows after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin departed from traditional U.S. currency policy, saying "obviously a weaker dollar is good for us." Colombia's peso added to Wednesday's 1.4 percent gain against the dollar to reach its strongest since July 2015, while the Chilean peso could close under 600 per dollar for the first time since May 2015.
Brazilian markets were closed for the Sao Paulo anniversary holiday but are expected to soon extend a rally that boosted the benchmark Bovespa stock index to an all-time high above 83,000 points on Wednesday. That advance came after an appeals court upheld a corruption conviction of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Although the conviction could derail his plans to run again for the presidency, Lula, who is leading opinion polls for the October election, said on Thursday he would appeal the decision.
Brazilian and Argentine shares have led a Latin American equities rally to start the year that has MSCI's gauge of the region's stocks set for its largest January gains since 2006.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1545 GMT:Stock indexes daily %YTD %
Latest change changeMSCI Emerging Markets 1262.450.29 8.66 MSCI LatAm 3198.990.9212.09Brazil Bovespa 9.53Mexico IPC 50881.410.27 3.09Chile IPSA 5824.190.45 4.67Chile IGPA 29265.95 0.4 4.59Argentina Merval 34773.14-0.515.66Colombia IGBC 12262.79 -0.42 7.85
Currenciesdaily %YTD %
change change
LatestBrazil real 3.14700.35 5.28
Mexico peso 18.45000.29 6.77
Chile peso 598.680.62 2.67Colombia peso 2790.370.73 6.87Peru sol 3.2090.12 0.87
Argentina peso (interbank)19.54000.67-4.81 Argentina peso (parallel)19.90.65-3.37 (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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