Mexican stocks ended lower on Friday, dragged down by breadmaker Bimbo and holding company Carso Telecom, while the peso gained slightly despite expectations of lower interest rates. At its twice-monthly meeting earlier on Friday, the Mexican central bank eased off a 16-month effort to tackle inflation by ending a policy of pushing interest rates higher in tandem with the US Federal Reserve.
While analysts said the central bank move signalled Mexican interest rates will drift lower in the months ahead, the fact they are still attractive relative to US rates lifted the peso by 0.26 percent to 10.7625 per dollar.
The IPC benchmark stock index lost 0.67 percent to 13,299.28 points, off for a fourth straight day after trending higher in recent weeks.
"The market's negative behaviour is explained mainly by profit taking since it had five consecutive weeks of gains," said Jesus Viveros, an analyst at Bursametrica consulting company. Bread maker Bimbo was among the market's main losers, finishing down 1.55 percent at $31.20.
Carso Telecom, a holding company for shares of fixed-line telephone giant Telmex, dropped 1.88 percent to 19.36 pesos.
"The stock market had not completely discounted this issue but the peso had already anticipated the central bank position. The stock market is also depending on external factors like the US market and oil prices," said one analyst.
Mexico's equity market has risen about 2.6 percent so far in June, in part because investors expect improved corporate earnings reports for the second quarter. Mobile phone operator America Movil, a leading player in Latin America, was down 0.28 percent to 31.60 pesos.
Its New York-traded shares inched up 0.02 percent to $58.64, however, just below an all-time high of $58.80 on Monday.
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