WORLD> America
Stocks ended lower in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-07 10:34

MEXICO CITY -- Four stock markets in Latin America ended lower on Monday, some of which experienced sharp drops during the day.

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Mexico City's IPC stock index fell down by 5.4 percent to 21,749.13 points. A total of 367.2  million shares were traded with a value of about 622 million dollars.

At the Buenos Aires stock market, the Merval index closed at 1,423.35 points, down 5.9 percent. The trade volume was 38.3 million dollars. The Merval index dropped as much as 11 percent after the opening of stock market.

In Sao Paulo, Latin America's biggest bourse, the leading Bovespa index closed at 42,100  points, down 5.43 percent. The trade volume was 2,397 billion dollars.

The Bovespa suspended on Monday its operations at 10:20 hrs local time, just 20 minutes after it began, because it registered a sharp drop of more than 10 percent, which activated the circuit breaker.

The circuit breaker is a mechanism that interrupts the negotiations if the prices surpass established up and down limits.

The Selective Prices Index of Actions (IPSA) of Chile, the main indicator of the Chilean Bourse lost on Monday 6.02 percent, the worst registration in the last 10 years in Chile.