Brazil's real at over 3-month high on hawkish central bank

Brazil's real surged on Thursday after the central bank made its second consecutive interest rate hike to curb rising inflation, while the Colombian peso recovered from six-month lows on the prospect of a revised tax reform bill.

The real rose 1.24% to its highest level since January this year after the central bank hiked its benchmark Selic rate by 75 basis points to 3.5% late on Wednesday.

The central bank also hinted at another rate hike in June to help curb rising inflation and support an economy hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Brazilian central bank's hawkish stance, which is in line with current inflation projections, has helped support the BRL, and signals of an additional rate hike next month will give more power to the real in the short term," said Mauricio Une, senior economist at Rabobank.

"However, there are fiscal risks that persist which are primarily on account of rising coronavirus infections, which would in turn push the congress towards more stimulus measures to help support the economy."

Colombia's peso surged 1.3% to break a five-day losing streak after its freshly-appointed finance minister said the country will seek to raise 14 trillion pesos ($3.6 billion) with a new tax reform. Mass protests and lawmaker opposition forced the withdrawal of the previous bill and his predecessor's resignation.

The currency of the world's largest copper producer, Chile , gained 0.4% as copper prices flirted with 10-year peaks.

MSCI's index of Latin American currencies gained 0.7%, while stocks rose 0.8%, primarily led by a weaker dollar and rising commodity prices.

The dollar fell from a two-week high on Thursday as global market risk appetite improved, further supporting emerging market currencies.

Shares of Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras fell 0.3% after it reopened bidding for its Golfinho offshore oilfield cluster, two sources told Reuters this week, following a rise in crude prices over the last several months.

Elsewhere, the Turkish lira was flat after the bank held its key interest rate steady at 19%, above inflation, which the central bank expects to cool after having risen beyond 17%.