Argentine Stocks: Banco Macro, Tenaris and TGN Were Active

The following companies had unusual price changes in Argentine trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of the close in Buenos Aires. The Merval (MERVAL) index advanced 0.3 percent to 2,227.58.

Banco Macro SA (BMA) , Argentina’s largest lender by market share, retreated 3.4 percent to 7.95 pesos, its biggest loss in a week. Financial stocks fell in Argentina on speculation of a slowdown in demand for consumer loans, Marcelo Olguin, chief economist at Buenos Aires-based brokerage Grupo SBS, said in a phone interview.

Tenaris SA (TEN) , the world’s largest producer of seamless steel tubes used in the oil industry, increased 4.3 percent to 102 pesos, its biggest gain in three months. Argentina will levy an import tax of as much as 14 percent on capital goods to protect local producers, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said in a speech in Buenos Aires yesterday. Tenaris has manufacturing centers in Argentina.

Transportadora de Gas del Norte SA (TGNO4 AF), the natural gas pipeline operator, fell for a sixth day, retreating 0.7 percent to 0.44 peso, its lowest price since June 2009. A local court rejected the company’s request to file for protection from creditors, it said in a statement posted yesterday on the website of the Buenos Aires exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduardo Thomson in Santiago at ethomson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net