Cremer, Cresud, Edelnor, Modelo, Molinos: Latin Equity Preview

By William Freebairn and James Attwood

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes today in Latin America trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the previous close. Preferred shares are usually the most-traded class of stock in Brazil.

The MSCI Latin America Index rose 6.1 percent yesterday to 3,186.4.

Argentina

Molinos Rio de la Plata SA (MOLI AF) and Cresud SACIF y A (CRES AF): Argentine farm groups voted to resume protests over government policies, including export restrictions that depress food prices on the domestic market. Farmers will stage a protest outside Congress in Buenos Aires and in rural towns across the country, renewing demonstrations that were halted in July, Eduardo Buzzi, president of the Agrarian Federation, told reporters in Buenos Aires yesterday. Molinos, an exporter of soybean oil, rose 2.1 percent to 9.55 pesos. Cresud, which farms soybeans and other crops, fell 1.5 percent to 3.27 pesos.

Solvay Indupa SAIC (INDU AF): The Buenos Aires-based exporter of chlorine and caustic soda canceled plans to sell shares in Brazil, it wrote in a filing posted on the Web site of the nation's securities regulator yesterday. The company did not give a reason. Solvay Indupa fell 4.1 percent to 3.55 pesos.

Brazil

Cremer SA (CREM3 BS): The Brazilian maker of medical supplies plans to repurchase as many as 1.68 million voting shares, or 5 percent of outstanding stock, over the next year, Cremer said in a filing posted on the local regulator's Web site yesterday. Cremer, which first sold shares to the public in April 2007, fell 4.7 percent to 10.20 reais.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4 BS): Declining oil prices may reduce costs for producers by cutting demand for oilfield services, Petrobras chief of refining and supply Paulo Roberto Costa told reporters yesterday in Manaus, Brazil. Petrobras gained 7.2 percent to 35.10 reais.

Chile

Empresa Electrica del Norte Grande SA (EDELNOR CC): Moody's Investors Service upgraded the senior unsecured long-term issuer rating of Edelnor from B2 to Ba3, assigning a ``stable'' outlook. Edelnor's business environment has improved as reduced natural- gas imports from Argentina allow it to increase its mainly coal- fired contracted dispatch capacity, Moody's wrote in a statement yesterday. Edelnor, which sells electricity to mines in northern Chile, fell 2.8 percent to 520 pesos.

Mexico

Grupo Modelo SAB (GMODELOC MM): Mexico's largest beermaker may find it ``very difficult'' to meet its forecasts for export volume growth and earnings before interest and taxes as a percentage of sales, Banco Santander SA said. U.S. beer imports may be lower in the first half of 2009 than expected, analysts Alexander Robarts and Sergio Matsumoto wrote in a research report e-mailed yesterday. Modelo rose 1.4 percent to 46.54 pesos.

To contact the reporters on this story: William Freebairn in Mexico City at wfreebairn@bloomberg.net; James Attwood in Santiago at jattwood3@bloomberg.net