(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Colombia's markets are ending the week looking less like an unstoppable success story and more like a crowded trade that finally has to justify its price.

In currencies, the peso is trading around 3,71 per dollar in early Friday dealings, a touch stronger than Thursday's close near 3,76 after an overnight pullback in the greenback.

The U.S. Dollar Index sits just above 100 as investors push back expectations for early Federal Reserve rate cuts and digest a sharp sell-off in U.S. tech stocks.

A firmer dollar and weaker Wall Street are usually bad news for higher-beta emerging markets, but Colombia's still-high real interest rates and decent trade balance continue to give the peso a floor.

The new source of discomfort is fiscal. The independent fiscal rule committee now estimates a 2025 deficit of about 6.7% of GDP-better than the relaxed 7.1% target, but still wide and flagged as a“structural deterioration” after this year's rule suspension.



For investors who prefer predictable budgets and limited state expansion, the signal is mixed: the arithmetic is improving, yet the discipline they want is not fully back.

Equities show the same tension. The MSCI COLCAP index is still up close to 50% this year and trading not far below record highs above 2,060, but it has now logged two straight declines, slipping to roughly 2,030 points.

Offshore, the main Colombia ETF has seen flows flatten, suggesting foreign funds are no longer rushing in at any price. Thursday's order book underlined the shift.

On the losing side, Davivienda preferred, Grupo Sura preferred, ISA, Ecopetrol and Cibest preferred all fell as money came out of liquid blue chips.



Gainers were led by Conconcreto, Cementos Argos preferred, Organización Terpel, Grupo Argos preferred and Cibest common, with domestic buyers rotating into more specific value stories rather than the whole market.

Technically, USD/COP is bouncing on four-hour charts while remaining in a broader downtrend on the daily timeframe; the COLCAP is still well above key moving averages but has clearly lost momentum.

For now, Colombia remains one of the region's brightest spots-but investors are starting to ask harder questions about how long that status can last without tighter fiscal steering from Bogotá.

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