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EMERGING MARKETS-Colombia's peso hits multi-year high after De La Espriella's election win
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EMERGING MARKETS-Colombia's peso hits multi-year high after De La Espriella's election win
Jun 22, 2026 1:55 PM

* Colombian stocks plunge after narrower-than-expected

right-wing victory

* Argentina authorizes up to $5 bln debt from international

institutions

* Bolivian crisis shows signs of easing as roadblocks reduce

(Updates with late afternoon trading)

By Ragini Mathur, Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal

June 22 (Reuters) - Colombia's peso strengthened to a

five-year high on Monday, while the country's benchmark stock

index logged sharp declines, as investors assessed right-wing

lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella's narrow victory in the

presidential election.

De la Espriella led leftist senator Ivan Cepeda by less than

1 percentage point after campaigning on pledges to reduce the

size of the state, broaden the tax base, cut corporate taxes and

restart oil exploration.

The peso rose 0.5% to its highest level since January

2021, while Colombia's main equity index reversed

early gains to fall 4.4%. If declines hold, this would be the

index's sharpest one-day fall in three months.

The tight result is expected to limit de la Espriella's room

for maneuver, forcing him to dilute parts of his agenda to

secure support in a divided Congress.

"Winning by 1% is still winning and it's positive for the

market... but the reality is you don't come in with a strong

political mandate that the market had originally anticipated and

passing reforms might be a little bit more complicated than

initially anticipated," said Paul Dmitriev, senior analyst and

portfolio manager for Global X's Colombia ETF.

The result puts Colombia alongside Argentina, Chile,

Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama in a broader regional shift to the

right. Colombian assets had already rallied in recent weeks as

de la Espriella's prospects improved.

"Colombia is still cheap, not nearly as it was even back in

January, but it's about in line with its 10-year average. So

there's still room," said Dmitriev.

Oil prices fell more than 2% after U.S. Vice President JD

Vance said talks with Iranian officials in Switzerland had laid

a "good foundation" for a final peace deal, despite tensions

over the Strait of Hormuz and Lebanon.

LatAm assets outside Colombia remained mixed, with stocks in

Mexico down 0.9%, while ones in Brazil gained

1.3%. Most currencies were little changed to slightly lower

against the dollar.

MSCI's Latin American equities index was up

only 0.1%, while its currencies gauge was off

0.2%.

Meanwhile, markets closely watched for results from Peru's

June 7 presidential runoff, with conservative Keiko Fujimori

projected to win by just over 0.2%.

Argentina's government authorized up to $5 billion in

financing from international entities backed by multilateral

credit organizations, according to the official gazette.

In Bolivia, major protest roadblocks cleared for the first

time in weeks on Sunday, a day after President Rodrigo Paz

declared a state of emergency to solve the crisis that cut off

key routes and choked essential supplies.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:

Latin American market

prices from Reuters

Equities Latest Daily %

change

MSCI Emerging Markets 1801.43 0.85

MSCI LatAm 2970.67 0.10

Brazil Bovespa 170529.97 1.3

Mexico IPC 67094.54 -0.9

Chile IPSA 10901.85 0.12

Argentina Merval 3273513.3 -0.54

Colombia COLCAP 2393.3 -4.38

Currencies Latest Daily %

change

Brazil real 5.1427 0.16

Mexico peso 17.3654 -0.31

Chile peso 906.6 -0.38

Colombia peso 3427.44 0.46

Peru sol 3.3834 -0.08

Argentina peso (interbank) 1461 -0.14

Argentina peso (parallel) 1475 -1.03

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