Mexico peso pares losses ahead of intervention

SAO PAULO: The Mexican peso pared losses on Tuesday after the country's central bank announced it would intervene in the foreign exchange market in an effort to ease pressure on the currency.

Mexico's central bank said it would sell up to $200 million worth of currency hedging instruments to roll over paper set to expire on Wednesday, just ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The bank had originally issued the instruments as a way to stem the peso's slide following the election of Trump, who threatened to scrap trade agreements with Mexico.

The peso has since made up some lost ground as those concerns eased, with investors betting that he would not impose big tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States.

Still, the peso fell the most among Latin American currencies, weakening more than 0.8 percent.

Most Latin American currencies fell ahead of the Xi meeting, which Trump has said "will be a very difficult one." He has held out the possibility of using trade as a lever to secure China's cooperation against North Korea.

Stock markets in the region were largely buoyant.

Argentina's benchmark stock index rose about 0.9 percent, touching a record high for the sixth straight trading day, after agency S&P raised the country's sovereign rating by a notch to B from B-.