2018.03.0816:57:00UTC+00ARGENTINA: Merval Rises Thursday Despite Low Trading Volume

Merval, the main index of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, rose 0.23% to 32,819.78 points Thursday, impacted by the quarterly results season despite the low trading volume.

"It was another boring day, with few businesses, and too much stock-picking.Although the trading volume has grown from the previous session, it is still at very low levels," said Eduardo Fern?ndez, an analyst at Rava Burs?til.

The Argentinean telecommunications company Telecom reported a 7.724 billion pesos net profit in 2017, an increase of 92.9% compared to the previous year.

Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS) presented financial results for the fourth quarter of 2017 in which is posted a 974.7 million pesos net income, an increase of 110.97% over the same period of 2016. Meanwhile, Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN) reported a gain of 841.8 million pesos in 2017.

The shares of Telecom Argentina (+3.91%), Edenor (+3.07%), TGS (+2.40%), and Tenaris (2.06%) closed higer, while TGN fell 2,53%.

The locally traded U.S. dollar closed down 0.24%, quoted at 20.36 Argentinean pesos, in a session marked by a new intervention by the central bank to interrupt the local currency devaluation.

According to Fernando Izzo, an analyst at ABC Mercado de Cambios, the monetary authority began to "sell the currency on an intermittent basis, and made the greenback stop rising."

However, that was not enough and the financial institution intervened twice more during the day.