EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks lead Latam losses on political uncertainty
SAO PAULO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's stocks were among the worst performers in Latin America on Tuesday as speculation about the future of Finance Minister Joaquim Levy raised more questions about the government's commitment to fiscal austerity.
Although Levy has repeatedly denied rumors of his resignation, Brazilian media was abuzz with reports that President Dilma Rousseff was considering replacing him in coming months, perhaps in the beginning of 2016.
Levy has spearheaded efforts to bridge a mounting budget gap that has fueled investor mistrust in the Brazilian economy, contributing to the longest economic recession since the 1930s.
His austerity plans have met strong resistance in Congress, however. Uncertainty about his future in the government are on the rise, said Marco Aurelio Barbosa, an analyst with CM Capital Markets in Brazil.
"What's worse, there's a growing fear that Brazil's economic policies will change course," he wrote in a note to clients.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index fell 0.8 percent, while Mexico's IPC index fell 0.5 percent. MSCI's benchmark index for Latin American stocks lost 0.4 percent.
Shares of Vale SA dropped 1.6 percent, weighing heavily on the Bovespa index, after the miner said a deadly collapse of a tailings dam at Samarco, an iron ore company it owns 50-50 with Australia's BHP Billiton Plc, will cut output from two nearby mines.
In the opposite direction, shares of pulp producer Fibria Celulose SA rallied 4.3 percent after it said it had sufficient water reserves for its operations in Espirito Santo state to last 100 days, after the Samarco dam burst contaminated downstream rivers with mud.
Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1830 GMT Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 832.77 -1.28 -11.79 MSCI LatAm 1992.91 -0.41 -26.64 Brazil Bovespa 45820.59 -0.81 -8.37 Mexico IPC 44276.17 -0.46 2.62 Chile IPSA 3797.93 -0.85 -1.38 Chile IGPA 18589.41 -1.2 -1.49 Argentina MerVal 12846.35 -0.19 49.74 Colombia IGBC 9136.99 -0.33 -21.47 Venezuela IBC 12269.09 0.9 217.96 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.7892 0.26 -29.87 Mexico peso 16.7402 0.12 -11.92 Chile peso 699.75 0.39 -13.34 Colombia peso 2941 -0.46 -18.80 Peru sol 3.3151 -0.09 -10.14 Argentina peso (interbank) 9.5925 -0.05 -10.87 Argentina peso (parallel) 14.52 -0.48 -3.58 (Reporting by Walter Brandimarte and Paula Arend Laier; editing by Grant McCool)
