The S&P MERVAL Index (MERcado de VALores, lit.'Stock Market') is the most important index of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. It is a price-weighted index, calculated as the market value of a portfolio of stocks selected based on their market share, number of transactions and quotation price. The base of MERVAL is set at 30 June 1986 = 0.01 Argentine pesos.

S&P MERVAL
OperatorBolsas y Mercados Argentinos (BYMA)
Trading symbolMERVAL
Websitehttps://www.byma.com.ar/indice-merval/
ISINARMERV160025
BloombergMERVAL:IND

It is part of a joint-venture between S&P Dow Jones Indices and BYMA.[1]

The corporations and weighted prices that compose MERVAL are updated every three months, based on their market share during the previous period.

As of 30 July 2021 the constituent companies of the index include Aluar (aluminium smelter), BBVA Argentina (financial services), Banco Macro (financial services), Sociedad Comercial del Plata (holding), Edenor (electricity), Grupo Financiero Galicia (financial services), Pampa Energía (energy), Ternium (steel), Telecom Argentina (telecommunications), and YPF (oil and gas).[2][3]

Historical values edit

Monthly closing values of MERVAL since 1992. Source: FactSet via WSJ[4]

The following is a table showing the annual maximum, minimum and annual closing values of MERVAL between 1989 and 2022. During that period, the index hit its minimum value in 2001, some time before the explosion of the economic crisis, but recovered in an accelerated fashion after that.[5]

The index experienced its biggest one-day intraday loss in history on 12 August 2019, when the index plummeted 16,824.29 points or 37.93% following the Argentine peso devaluation and the defeat of Mauricio Macri in the primary elections.[6]

On 7 July 2022, the index closed above 100,000 points for the first time. This is due to the Argentine economy experiencing chronic inflation that is causing the peso to lose a lot of purchasing power in a short period of time. As a result, Argentine stocks actually lost value in hard currency terms such as U.S. dollars over the long run.[7]

As inflationary pressure has continued in Argentina, with the annual inflation rate exceeding 100% for the first time in more than three decades, the S&P MERVAL index went up by 360% in 2023.

Year Maximum Minimum Final
1989 37.27 0.20 37.27
1990 142.79 17.48 92.50
1991 854.70 83.85 800.62
1992 890.41 315.38 426.33
1993 581.92 356.56 581.92
1994 727.85 436.97 460.49
1995 518.96 262.11 518.96
1996 657.49 491.71 649.37
1997 869.45 556.72 687.50
1998 720.73 299.51 430.06
1999 607.57 333.00 550.47
2000 648.61 396.39 416.77
2001 540.16 193.40 295.39
2002 531.65 265.97 524.95
2003 1086.77 518.32 1071.95
2004 1408.10 828.34 1375.37
2005 1738.44 1265.97 1543.31
2006 2097.33 1486.56 2090.46
2007 2354.73 1751.75 2151.73
2008 2257.25 819.36 1079.66
2009 2343.29 914.07 2320.73
2010 3538.59 2060.18 3523.59
2011 3700.90 2212.28 2462.63
2012 2976.83 2118.07 2854.29
2013 5825.37 2867.43 5391.03
2014 12599.42 5244.86 8579.02
2015 14597.20 7976.00 11675.18
2016 18431.54 9199.81 16917.86
2017 30277.53 16921.64 30065.61
2018 35461.52 24618.09 30292.55
2019 44470.76 22484.40 41671.41
2020 56114.04 21738.62 51226.49
2021 97024.42 46011.61 83500.11
2022 205953.37 80403.36 202085.12
2023 1084545.00 194821.10 929704.19


Record values edit

Category All-time highs[4]
Closing 1,055,381.11 Friday, 5 January 2024
Intraday 1,084,545.00 Wednesday, 13 December 2023

References edit

  1. ^ "S&P MERVAL (ARS) TR - S&P Dow Jones Indices". espanol.spindices.com. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  2. ^ Yahoo list
  3. ^ "MERVAL" (in Spanish).
  4. ^ a b "SPMERVAL | S&P MERVAL Index Advanced Charting - WSJ". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  5. ^ "MERVAL Index (Argentina) Yearly Stock Returns". www.1stock1.com. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  6. ^ "La bolsa de Buenos Aires se desploma un 37,93 % tras la derrota de Macri". www.efe.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  7. ^ de 2022, 7 de Julio. "Mercados: el Merval rompió un récord en pesos pero siguió mínimos medido en dólares". infobae (in Latin American Spanish). Retrieved 14 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links edit