ARGENTINA: Investors Cheer Technical Tie In Legislative Primary Elections

(RTTNews) - The political coalitions Cambiemos and Unidad Ciudadana, which represent the Argentinean government and opposition, respectively, had a technical tie in the primary elections for Congress in Buenos Aires province, the main district of the country.

The primary elections in Argentina seek to define the political parties that will compete in the October 22 legislative elections, which will renew a third of the Senate and almost half of the House of Representatives chairs.

The result was in line with market expectations, which considered the result a victory for Argentina's President Mauricio Macri.

With 95.68% of the votes counted, the provisional result of the primary election in Buenos Aires showed that Esteban Bullrich, the government's pre-candidate for the Senate, had 34.19% of support, followed by the former president Cristina Kirchner, from the opposition, with 34.11%.

Cambiemos also secured victories the provinces of San Luis, Neuquén, and La Pampa.

Investors believe that Cambiemos has a more market-friendly set of policies and after the primary election results went public, the Merval stock market index rose 3.47%, to 22,383.71 points.

The result soothed market fears that Cambiemos could lack the strength in Congress to move forward with economic reforms and increased bets that Mauricio Macri could be reelected in 2019.