Latin American assets operate with low liquidity due to US holidays and carnivals

BOGOTÁ, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Some Latin American money and stock markets operated on Monday with reduced liquidity due to the U.S. Presidents’ Day holiday, while markets in Brazil and Argentina remained closed for carnival season.

* The Mexican peso fell 0.39% to 18.4240 units to the dollar, after hitting levels not seen in nearly five years, in a market that targets the release of Federal Reserve and the Bank of Mexico, to be announced later in the week.

* On the stock market, the main S&P/BMV IPC stock index, which includes the 35 most liquid companies in the Mexican market, climbed 0.13% to 53,861.12 points.

* In Colombia, the foreign exchange market will remain closed during the session due to the holiday in the United States, while on the stock market, the benchmark index MSCI COLCAP, rose 0.25% to 1,208.60 points.

* The Chilean peso gained 0.09% to 789.80/790.10 units to the dollar and the Santiago Stock Exchange’s flagship index, the IPSA, gained 0.21% to 5,340.39 points.

* The Peruvian currency, the sol, fell 0.11% to 3.8394 units to the dollar and the benchmark Lima Stock Exchange added 0.16% to 575.89 points.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra, additional reporting by Froilán Romero in Santiago.)