Mexican Stocks Rebound on Hope

Mexican stocks rebounded late in the session Friday to close little changed as the peso rose amid hopes a final agreement on the long-awaited $20-billion U.S. aid package for Mexico will be reached over the weekend.

The Bolsa index fell as much as 3.4% to 1,768.34 before rising to close at 1,830.47, a 0.06% decline on the day.

Stocks rebounded late in the session as “smart guys, the guys who got out of Mexico last summer when the market was reasonably high, are starting to get back in,” said Leon Brand, an analyst at NatWest Securities Inc. “They’re buying very, very slowly, so they don’t lose their shirts if there’s more bad news.”

The peso jumped 6.1% to close at 5.725 to the dollar, from Thursday’s close of 6.075 pesos, for the largest one-day gain in two weeks.