BRASILIA: Latin American stocks and currencies seesawed on Wednesday as the US Independence Day holiday kept trading volumes low, while shares of Brazilian power utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA soared.
Financial markets across the region were range-bound as traders avoided making big bets amid low liquidity after days of strong volatility.
Emerging markets have been battered by concerns over a potential trade war between the United States and China, as well as local political woes.
"Trading volumes are very low, it will be hard to determine a trend for the markets today," a trader at a S?o Paulo-based brokerage said.
The Mexican peso, in particular, has oscillated strongly in recent days after leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won the presidential election and stoked concerns of populism.
Yet the Mexican peso inched up 0.3 percent on Wednesday, extending a bounceback after advisors to Obrador sought to assuage investor concerns.
Meanwhile, shares of Eletrobras, as the Brazilian power utility is known, soared 16 percent after the lower house of Congress agreed to speed up approval of a bill seen as key to the sale of some of the firm's money-losing distribution units.
The vote on Tuesday night speeds up a project dealing with the debt of six Eletrobras distribution units, which is seen as a major sticking point for any potential sale.
The benchmark Bovespa stock index was up 0.2 percent, in line with other stock markets in Latin America.
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