Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Cemex SAB, the largest cement maker in the Americas, rose to the highest since June as the peso rallied and the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly dropped, boosting speculation the recession in its biggest markets may be ending.

Cemex’s American depositary receipts gained 3 percent to $10.93 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. For the week, the shares gained 16 percent. The Mexican shares today climbed 2.2 percent to 14.15 pesos.

“There’s more optimism in the U.S. economy and that always helps Cemex because it has a lot of exposure to the U.S.,” Gonzalo Fernandez, an analyst with the Mexican unit of Banco Santander SA, said in an interview.

The Mexican company is also finalizing a debt restructuring proposal with creditors and is expected to announce it this month or next, Fernandez said. Cemex said on July 29 that more than 90 percent of creditors support the plan to push out maturities on about $15 billion to 2014, with some payments due before that date.

The pace of U.S. job losses slowed more than forecast last month and the unemployment rate dropped for the first time since April 2008, a Labor Department report said. The U.S. jobless rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent and payrolls fell by 247,000, after a 443,000 loss in June, the labor report said.

The U.S., which accounted for 19 percent of Cemex sales in the first half of 2009, is the company’s second-largest market behind Mexico. The company’s U.S. sales fell 41 percent during the first six months of this year.

Cemex is benefiting also from a strong peso, which has gained more than 6 percent on the dollar since July 14. At the end of June, 61 percent of Cemex’s total debt of $19.3 billion, which doesn’t include about $3 billion of perpetual bonds, was denominated in dollars.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Monterrey at tblack@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 7, 2009 16:56 EDT