The 38-member SEMDEX gauge advanced for a second day, increasing 0.3 percent to 1,950.66 by the 1:30 p.m. close in Port Louis, led by Mauritius Commercial Bank, the biggest lender by market value, which gained 0.6 percent to 172 rupees. Mauritius’s market will likely be closed tomorrow for the Muslim Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
Emerging-market stocks advanced, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index heading for its largest three-day gain since Dec. 3, after reports showed Americans’ spending increased more than economists forecast while incomes grew at the projected pace.
“The bearish wave that engulfed markets is slowly receding,” analysts at Mauritius Commercial Bank wrote in an e-mailed research note today. “Investors have started to tread carefully into risky-asset territory lately, but are on the lookout for any negative signs.”
Mauritius’s rupee weakened 0.7 percent to 27.95 per dollar, trimming its second monthly gain to 0.2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Versus the euro, the currency of its main trading partner, the rupee depreciated 0.1 percent to 40.2878, extending its loss in August to 0.3 percent.
Buying prices for the dollar were from 27.0903 to 27.2594 rupees, while the selling price was 28.5508 per dollar, compared with 28. 583 on Aug. 29, according to indicative exchange ratespublished today on the Bank of Mauritius’s website.