Mexican stocks eye record high after U.S. data

Mexican equities climbed Monday, with the benchmark posting another record high following encouraging manufacturing data from the U.S., Mexico’s largest export market.


Among Monday’s blue-chip advancers, shares of retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico WMMVY -0.93%  rose 2%. Consumer discretionary issues were higher, led by a 4.3% climb in brewer Grupo Modelo MX:GMODELOC +2.52% . Also higher were mining stocks, with Industrias Penoles up by 2.9% and copper producer Grupo Mexico MX:GMEXICOB -1.77%  up by 1.1% as May copper HGK2 -3.27%  rose more than 2% to $3.92 a pound.


The IPC on Friday ended the first quarter up 6.6%, wiping out last year’s loss of 3.8%. Gains came in part after a number of reports showing improvement in Latin America’s second-largest economy, including a stronger-than-expected rise in industrial production of 4.2% in January from a year ago.