Emerging Markets: Latam stocks dip; Brazilian banks weigh

Latin American stocks fell on Friday, hit by worries that currency intervention could hurt local banks while a US court ruling cast a shadow over banking shares. The MSCI Latin American stocks index lost 0.35 percent, adding to a sharp drop in the previous session that put the index down almost 0.8 percent so far this year.
Brazilian banks weighed, extending their slide of the previous session. A Thursday announcement of a new reserve requirement for banks' foreign exchange positions made investors wary of the possibility of more currency interventions in the future, said Guilherme Sand, a fund manager with Solidus brokerage in Brazil.
"And US stocks are also falling, which influences things here," he added. On Wall Street, indexes slipped after a court ruling voided foreclosures on two homes, which may cause sales of other foreclosed properties to be invalidated. The accumulated pressure led to a drop in equities more broadly, Sand said. Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 0.74 percent, but still added nearly 1.1 percent on the week. In Sao Paulo, shares of Itau Unibanco, the country's largest private-sector bank, gave up 2.45 percent, Bradesco moved down 1.69 percent, Santander declined 1.31 percent and Banco do Brasil, Latin America's largest bank by assets, lost 2.37 percent.
Also dropping were heavyweight commodity companies Vale and Petrobras. Vale the world's largest producer of iron ore, shed 0.82 percent and state-controlled oil company Petrobras retreated 1.4 percent. In Mexico, the IPC index edged up 0.03 percent, supported by a 3.66 percent gain in shares of billionaire Carlos Slim's Grupo Carso. Slim's miner Minera Frisco rose 5.78 percent after jumping more than 26 percent in its market debut on Thursday after being spun off from Grupo Carso.
A mixed US employment report for December fell short of increased expectations of recovery in the labour market, hurting recent optimism about stronger growth in the United States, Mexico's top trading partner. Shares in top retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico added 0.28 percent after data from late Thursday showed December same-store sales beat expectations and a report on Friday showed consumer confidence hit a three-month high in December. Chile's IPSA index lost 0.99 percent as retailer Falabella lost 2.12 percent and industrial conglomerate Copec shed 2.1 percent.