Emerging-market stocks rose, extending a weekly rally, amid speculation global central banks will keep economic stimulus measures. Infosys Limited’s better-than-estimated sales forecast lifted technology companies.
Reuters reported that the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 0.2 per cent to 945.15 at 3:55 p.m. in New York, driving its weekly gain to 2.9 per cent. Infosys surged the most in six months in Mumbai and banks paced rally in the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange National 100 Index.
Chinese stocks tumbled on concern the government may tolerate a slower-than-indicated pace of growth, while the nation almost doubled foreign funds’ access to capital markets.
Brazil’s Ibovespa and the real led declines among major developing-nation stock benchmarks and currencies.
European Central Bank executive board member Vitor Constancio said the euro area’s slow recovery implies that policy has to stay “accommodative for a longer period of time.”
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the economy will continue to need stimulus. China’s Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said a 6.5 per cent growth rate wouldn’t be a “big problem.”
“Anything that delays the idea of tightening is overall beneficial to emerging markets,” Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management which oversees $180bn, said by phone. “There’s still a lot of confusion about what is going to happen in China. We’re not going to step in until we see a bottoming of expectations.”