960420

Mexican stocks hit

new record close

on rate hopes

MEXICO CITY: Mexican stocks ended a record-breaking week at new highs Friday, cheered by a string of good news that may lead to further cuts in interest rates next week, but the market eased off peaks in late trade.

"The market remains optimistic, encouraged by good quarterly reports and (hopes that) primary returns will fall up to 250 basis points in next Tuesday's auction," said a trader at Fimsa brokerage.

The bolsa's 37-share IPC index closed up 10.96 points, or 0.335 percent, at 3,284.48 points on sturdy volume of 123 million shares.

Earlier the market tackled resistance, reaching 3,330.56 points, but it could not hold the gains and pared highs.

"Buying began on Wall Street, above all in Telmex and Televisa, which enabled the index to break technical resistance of 3,300 points," another trader said.

Thursday, media giant Televisa announced plans to issue $500 million of long-term debt in a private placement, $200 of which is going toward refinancing a November 1997.

"Televisa will buy bonds from the U.S. Treasury and deposit them in a trust fund to pay the ($200 million) Eurobonds when they mature," said a source close to the deal.

When investors realized this essentially turned Televisa risk into U.S. Treasury risk, there was a rally in its stock and bonds. Televisa CPOs ended up 4.01 percent, after having notched up gains of 7.07 percent earlier.-Reuter