International Business

MEXICAN STOCKS

* After hovering around 2,800 for a week, the Bolsa closed down 0.54% to 2,794.83 Wednesday as investors took profits after expected interest rate cuts. The benchmark 28-day treasury bill, cetes, fell 55 basis points to 13.43%.

* The market is sensitive to a new peso-dollar foreign exchange policy to be announced Oct. 15. Currently, the peso trades freely in a broad band, which widens at the rate of 0.04 centavos per day. If the value of the U.S. dollar reaches one of the limits, the Mexican central bank will intervene to buy or sell pesos. The peso has weakened by about 10% this year against the dollar, wiping out the Bolsa’s 8% gain from the perspective of a U.S. investor.

The Bolsa Index: Wednesday closes

Sept. 1994: 2,794.83

Sources: Dow Jones; Bloomberg Business News

SPOTLIGHT: FINLAND

The largely free-market economy is suffering from a lingering recession that began in 1991 and was caused by a depressed market for exports (which account for about 30% of GDP) and the end of a barter system in which oil and gas from the former Soviet Union was exchanged for Finnish manufactured goods.

Sources: Bank of America; World Information Services