Peru: Brexit impacts would be indirect, medium-term, says Segura

Britain is not a major trading partner with Peru, but global volatility hit local markets after a majority of British voters backed a British exit or “Brexit” from the EU.

[related-post]

Watch Video: What’s making news

Peru’s sol currency closed 0.9 percent lower on Friday after retreating from steeper losses earlier in the day. Peru’s mining-heavy select stock index slipped 1.7 percent as shares in base metals producers Southern Copper Corp and Volcan tumbled.

Shares in Peruvian precious metals miner Buenaventura , however, climbed more than 4 percent as gold prices rose on support from safe-haven seekers.

Peru is a leading producer of copper, zinc, gold, silver and tin. It implemented a free trade agreement with the EU in 2013 and mostly ships minerals, coffee, cotton and fishmeal to member states.

Segura will step down as finance minister on July 28 when president-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski takes office.

Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker and free-trade champion, had said on Thursday that a triumph of the Brexit camp would be a “tragedy,” according to local newspaper El Comercio.