Argentine stocks lose 6.85% on oil slide

Argentine stocks closed down 6.85 percent Wednesday, weighted down by falling oil prices for a second day of heavy losses.
As oil prices sank to new five-year lows, the Merval stock index in Buenos Aires shed more than 600 points to 8,279.04, after losing 7.22 percent Tuesday.
State oil firm YPF and Brazil's Petrobras were among the top losers again, falling 7.48 percent and 8.11 percent respectively.
Electricity wholesaler Pampa Energia lost 8.40 percent, and electricity distributor Transener lost 7.96 percent.
The bad news in Buenos Aires came as OPEC forecast that demand for the cartel's oil would fall to the lowest level since 2003 next year, but still showed no signs of cutting production.
That added to downward price pressure created by a supply glut fed in large part by booming production of shale oil in the United States.
The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude hit nearly $60 a barrel Wednesday, down 40 percent from just six months ago.
Argentina is facing its own economic headaches, including a debt default, low foreign reserves and high inflation.
The South American country is locked in a court battle with two US hedge funds that refuse to accept its plans to restructure the $100 billion debt it defaulted on in 2001.
Until the impasse is resolved, a federal court in New York has blocked Argentina from repaying creditors who had agreed to take steep losses on their bonds.
Inflation meanwhile stands at 21.4 percent for the period from January to October, according to the government -- though independent analysts put the figure at 30 to 40 percent or more.