Mexican Market Hits Record

Mexico’s stock market staged another huge rally Monday, driving the main index as high as 6,192.86 before profit-taking clipped the final gain to 116.10 points--still a 1.9% rise that left the index at a record 6,080.47. It’s up 53% in peso terms this year.

Traders said foreigners remain big buyers of Mexican stocks on optimism about the economy.

The Bank of Mexico announced Friday that April consumer prices rose 0.92%, a continuation of the declining trend seen in inflation in recent months.

Also on Monday, Carlos Slim Helu, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Mexico, announced that he holds 5.3% of U.S. online music retailer CDNow Inc. The news helped boost the stock $1.31 to close at $18.06 on Nasdaq.

Slim, considered a very shrewd investor, already holds controlling stakes in phone giant Telmex and in Prodigy Communications Corp., an Internet service provider.

Slim didn’t detail what his plans might be for CDNow.

“Sometimes their investments are long term and strategic in nature, and sometimes the investments are just for their short-term purposes,” said Alex Ryshawy, an analyst at Paribas Inc.