* Brazil's Vale reports decrease in Q1 iron ore output
* Brazil discusses oil output increase with United States
* Eletrobras pares gains on privatization delay doubts
(Recasts, updates prices)
By Susan Mathew and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's real rose 1% on Wednesday with
the government in talks with Washington to increase Brazil's oil
output to cap crude prices, while Vale dragged on Sao Paulo's
Bovespa stock index on lower iron ore production.
The real, which rallied against a sliding
dollar, is on track for its sixth straight month of gains,
benefiting from a spike in commodity prices, tight monetary
policy and lack of direct exposure to the Russia-Ukraine war.
With a current crude output of around 3 million barrels of
oil per day (bpd), Brazil is aiming for a 10% increase to 3.3
million bpd in 2022, Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque said in a
Reuters interview, as the war sends prices soaring.
"Currencies of Brazil, South Africa, Peru, Chile, and
Colombia, whose weakness fueled inflation during the COVID
crisis, have now strengthened on the back of higher-priced
commodities," said Lucila Bonilla, emerging markets economist at
Oxford Economics.
Shares of state-run oil major Petrobras inched
up, but the Bovespa stock index slipped 0.8% as miner
Vale lost 2.9% after first-quarter iron ore
production fell 6.0% from the previous year.
Brazilian steelmaker Usiminas dropped 7.3% as it
reported a 49% sequential decline in first-quarter net income,
while cosmetics maker Natura dropped 14.6% after its
quarterly revenue missed estimates.
State-run power company Eletrobras was last up
1.8%, cutting a chunk of its 5.4% session gains after government
officials warned that a federal audit court may further delay a
ruling on the company's privatization, which could derail plans
to complete the process before this year's election.
Investors will also be looking out for the release of some
economic indicators in Brazil after central bank employees
approved the suspension of a strike that began earlier this
month over wage demands.
With U.S. Treasury yields falling after a surge, the dollar
lost some shine, helping keep Mexico's currency buoyed,
while Chile's peso gained 0.5%.
But fall in oil prices in Wednesday on demand worries
weighed on exporter Colombia's peso.
Stocks in the country rose 0.5%, while in Mexico,
shares dropped 1.5% for their worst session in more than
six weeks.
The broader emerging market stocks index was
marginally lower as heavy-weight China stocks lost more than 1%
overnight after central bank stimulus disappointed.
Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1932 GMT:
Stock indexes Latest Daily %
change
MSCI Emerging Markets 1095.64 -0.03
MSCI LatAm 2584.08 0.06
Brazil Bovespa 114165.83 -0.77
Mexico IPC 53837.07 -1.46
Chile IPSA 4955.22 0.88
Argentina MerVal 92159.07 0.131
Colombia COLCAP 1611.93 0.52
Currencies Latest Daily %
change
Brazil real 4.6239 0.91
Mexico peso 20.0275 -0.11
Chile peso 814.5 0.59
Colombia peso 3755.41 -0.26
Peru sol 3.713 -0.27
Argentina peso 113.9600 -0.15
(interbank)
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara
Lewis and Grant McCool)