Last checked at 
By Sruthi Shankar
Nov 23 (Reuters) - The Mexican peso strengthened below 20
per dollar on Monday for the first time since early March as
further positive updates on COVID-19 vaccines boosted appetite
for Latin American assets.
The peso traded up 0.5% at 20.047 per dollar after
firming to as much as 19.936 earlier in the session.
Risky assets across the globe rallied on signs that U.S.
health regulators could grant approval in mid-December for
distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer
and German partner BioNTech.
Britain's AstraZeneca said its vaccine could be
around 90% effective without any serious side effects, making it
the latest drugmaker to report late-stage results.
A more than 1% rise in oil prices also supported the Mexican
peso - which has outperformed regional peers this year despite a
5.5% drop.
"The immediate target is MXN19.80," Marc Chandler, chief
market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex told clients in a
note.
"The high nominal rates (~4.28% on a one-month bill, or
cetes) and the broader gains among emerging market currencies
appear to be fueling the peso's gains."
The Brazilian real, the Colombian and the
Chilean pesos edged up 0.2% each.
Brazil's government has already signed a COVID-19 vaccine
supply contract with AstraZeneca and on Sunday its health
ministry said it would sign non-binding letters of intent to
purchase vaccines from four other companies and Russia's wealth
fund.
Stocks in the region gained 0.5%, tracking a
broad rally in global equities on hopes that an early rollout of
a vaccine will revive the global economy.
Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:
Latest Daily %
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1221.78 1.04
MSCI LatAm 2174.54 0.55
Brazil Bovespa 107062.35 0.96
Mexico IPC - -
Chile IPSA 4068.47 0.34
Argentina MerVal 51492.34 1.064
Colombia COLCAP 1242.02 0.18
Currencies Latest Daily %
change
Brazil real 5.3851 0.01
Mexico peso 20.0471 0.47
Chile peso 763.7 0.03
Colombia peso 3617.98 0.36
Peru sol 3.5947 0.00
Argentina peso (interbank) 80.3500 -0.09
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
3 May 2024 12:17
CORRECT: Angle shares up on assay development deal with AstraZeneca
(Correcting company name in headline)
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