Mexican stocks ticked lower Friday, with shares of cement maker Cemex hit after a weak forecast, and pressure stemming from poor monthly retail sales in the U.S., the country's biggest trading partner.
Brazilian shares, however, extended their win streak to put the benchmark on pace for a small weekly gain.
Mexico's IPC was last off 10 points to 25,542.82, paring earlier losses. It was the fourth session of declines. The benchmark was on track to fall nearly 2% for the week.
Cemex (CX) shares put in the worst performance, down 7.6% after the company late Thursday issued a third-quarter forecast that disappointed analysts. Among its projections, sales will be $5.9 billion, or flat compared with the year-ago period, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will be about $1.25 billion, down 3% from last year.
EBITDA for 2008 will come in between $4.6 billion to $4.7 billion, with about half of the decline due to a lower-than-expected performance in its U.S. operations, said Cemex. Its results will also reflect a negative foreign- exchange effect of roughly $100 million, largely because of the weaker euro.
