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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oracle who wrote (6241)	8/3/1998 8:26:00 AM
From: Oracle	Respond to of 22640

Monday August 3, 7:00 am Eastern Time WEEK AHEAD-Brazil to shine amid trepid LatAm mkts By Noriko Yamaguchi SAO PAULO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks are expected to shine amid overall slumping Latin American markets this week as optimism from last week's widely-hailed Telebras' (TELB4.SA) privatization auction lingers, brokers said. Most markets are expected to tread water with cautious investors eyeing recently sluggish prices on Wall Street, while Telebras and related telecoms are seen leading the bulls in Brazil, they said. BRAZILIAN STOCKS are seen ticking up, with movements in Telebras and telecoms stocks still dominating trading floors. Last week, stocks rose across the board after investors cheered Telebras' sell-off, which raised $19 billion for national coffers. ''Even though shares slumped by the end of the week on a natural correction, most investors are betting on another rally this week,'' said Carlos Tokutake at Doria & Atherino brokerage. ''Some technical charts are showing the index to hit 12,000.'' On Friday, the Bovespa index (^BVSP - news) of the 58 most active stocks in Sao Paulo ended at 10,707 points, up 1.25 percent on the week. Market players will be watching for news on when and how the 12 telephone firms spun off of Telebras would start trading, brokers said. Meanwhile, the MEXICAN MARKET is expected to be rocked by volatile overseas bourses, especially Wall Street, brokers said. Share prices plunged 5.56 percent or 250.14 points last week with the benchmark IPC shares index of 35 major companies closing at 4,244.96 points on Friday. ''This week, we are more or less going to follow the same down-trend,'' said Carlos Samano, research director at Bancomer, Mexico's biggest financial group. Samano said he sees the IPC index between 4,200 and 4,400 points, or perhaps slightly below 4,200. In ARGENTINA, analysts expected local prices to react largely to upcoming earnings reports. ''We should see a selective market since this week marks the beginning of earnings reports,'' analyst Hugo Dias Lourenco at C&E Consultores said. Analysts expected weaker results from the oil, banking and steel sectors, but a strong showing by the telecoms industry. Dias said the market would remain influenced by New York and Brazil. The blue chip MerVal (^MERV - news) index closed down 3.36 percent last week at 588.79 points. It was up 6.97 percent for the month, but off 12.64 on the year so far. CHILEAN STOCKS were positioned to stay even with a few bumps in a handful of stocks as investors make late assessments of last week's release of generally poor first-half results. ''(It will be) more of a stable market and depend on individual analyses (of results). It will be a more fundamental market and not so emotional,'' said Mark Freudenthal, an analyst at brokerage Banedwards SA. In addition to taking a closer look at corporate earnings, investors will analyze how the dry spell may affect electric companies and how high interest rates will affect retail firms, he said. Stocks could receive a boost following news that an accounting standard was revised to partially wash out the effect of peso depreciation on corporate earnings, traders said. The IPSA (^IPSA - news) index of the leading 40 stocks posted a 1.1 percent decline on last week to end at 88.78 points. In VENEZUELA, shares were seen treading water in sluggish trade, hobbled by a depressing mixture of economic and political currents. Share prices have fallen nearly 50 percent this year in dollar terms and price per expected earnings ratios are about half that of most Latin American countries. Even at wretchedly low prices, brokers say few investors are prepared to take a gamble on Venezuelan stocks. With the government now predicting a 0.6 percent contraction of the economy and populist candidate Hugo Chavez stretching his lead in opinion polls for December's presidential elections, investors will contined to give Venezuelan equities a wide berth, brokers said. The market's 15-share (^IBC - news) index slipped 1.9 percent last week in extremely light trade. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Quotes and News: BRSP BOVESPA IND (^BVSP - news) BUSE Merval Indx (Buenos Aires Stock Exchange) (^MERV - news) IBC INDEX (Caracas Stock Exchange) (^IBC - news) SASE Select Inx (Santiago Stock Exchange) (^IPSA - news) Related News Categories: US Market News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments?

To: Oracle who wrote (6241)	8/3/1998 8:29:00 AM
From: Oracle	Respond to of 22640

As already suggested on this thread, no cause for concern : - BRASILIA, July 31 (Reuters) - Fernando Xavier stepped down Friday as president of Brazil's recently privatized telephone company Telebras (TELB4.SA), a spokesman for the company said. Xavier will be replaced by Ronaldo Sa, who will oversee the handover of Telebras' 12 companies to their new owners and the gradual dissolution of the state holding. Sa is currently secretary of broadcasting at the Communications Ministry. Xavier is also due to renounce the presidency of fixed-line company Telesp at a shareholders meeting on August 10, the Telebras spokesman said. Telesp, which covers the prosperous southern state of Sao Paulo, was snapped up at a massive auction Wednesday by a group led by Spain's Telefonica de Espana (TEF.MC) and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV.MC). The remaining 400 employees of Telebras will be laid off within the next year, the spokesman said.