Emerging markets: Latam stocks at two-week high

A gauge of Latin American stocks rose to a two-week high on Thursday after a recent slump, but Brazilian shares fell after the country's main index failed to break a key level and local earnings disappointed. The MSCI Latin American stocks index rose 0.37 percent, after turning positive for the month in the previous session.
Investors bought riskier assets around the world, including Latin American equities, as the nuclear crisis in tsunami- and earthquake-struck Japan appeared to be more stable and concerns about the impact of Libya's conflict on oil prices eased. Nevertheless, uncertainty about the medium- and long-term global recovery kept some investors hesitant. Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 0.39 percent, falling back from resistance around 68,000 points. The market has tried and failed to hold gains above that level four times in the last two months.
Still, analysts in a Reuters poll saw Brazil's index gaining another 13 percent by year-end, buoyed by the domestic economy. Shares of mining company Vale, the world's largest producer of iron ore, fell 0.99 percent. Media reports have suggested the government is intensifying a campaign to push out chief executive officer Roger Agnelli following years of tensions between the firm and state leaders.
Shares of JBS, the world's biggest beef producer, dropped 3.62 percent. The company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of 539.3 million reais ($325 million), after logging a profit of 127.9 million reais in the last quarter of 2009. Mexico's IPC advanced 0.89 percent to 36,872 to an almost three week high.
Mexican stocks have been in a downtrend since falling off a record high in January, but they have rebounded close to 4 percent from a nearly 5-month low in the past three sessions. Chart analysts said the IPC would have to rise well above 37,000 points to break out of the descending channel on its chart and suggest stocks could see sustained gains. Financial group Banorte added 2.11 percent. Chile's IPSA index gained 0.91 percent as the bourse broke a key resistance to reach one-month highs. Conglomerate Copec advanced 1.34 percent.