Traders buy Argentina ETF at fastest pace in almost a decade

An exchange-traded fund tracking Argentine stocks attracted its biggest weekly inflow in nine years after firebrand Javier Milei was elected the South American nation’s president and then presented a more moderate stance ahead of his inauguration next month.

The US$78 million Global X MSCI Argentina ETF, which trades under the ticker ARGT, saw a weekly inflow of US$13 million last week. That’s the second largest since the fund was launch in 2011, lagging only the $16.7 million inflow seen in mid-2014. 

Signs that libertarian Milei might be more pragmatic and deviate from some of his more controversial proposals have fueled a sharp rally across Argentine assets, including dollar bonds, ADRs and local stocks. Luis Caputo, a Wall Street veteran who is leading Milei’s economic transition team, told bankers the new administration will focus on reaching a fiscal surplus next year, Bloomberg News reported last week.

The ARGT ETF closed at a record high on Friday, extending its year-to-date gain to over 44 percent. 

Investors are betting “Milei will be able to deliver on correcting the fiscal deficit and the reigning macro-imbalances,” said Juan Manuel Vazquez, a fixed income sales trader at Puente, a brokerage in Buenos Aires. “Whether this rally will be sustained or fade in the future will rely on his administration delivering and regaining market confidence.”