``Colombia is moving in accordance to external markets,'' said Eduardo Reyes, chief economist at Tradition brokerage's unit in Colombia. ``Amid the heightened risk aversion, local investors are dropping peso bonds and buying dollars,''

Crude oil for October delivery fell as low as $107.22 a barrel today on the New York Mercantile Exchange, from 109.71 yesterday and from a record $147.27 on July 11. Oil is Colombia's biggest export.

The peso has plunged 12.4 percent since July 15, when the dollar began rising against the euro from an all-time low. The greenback advanced today against most major currencies.

The yield on the nation's benchmark 11 percent bonds due in July 2020 closed little changed at 11.5 percent. The bonds' price fell 0.002 centavo to 96.783 centavos per peso, according to Colombia's stock exchange. It earlier dropped to 95.835, its lowest since Aug. 26.

Peru's sol closed little changed, rising 0.03 percent to 2.9645 per dollar, from 2.9655 yesterday.

Peru's central bank intervened in the currency market for the first time since July, selling $70 million in a bid to ease the sol's slide. The currency has dropped 5.6 percent in the past month.

Inflation Concerns

``The central bank knows that the sol isn't responding to speculative factors so it will likely continue to intervene although not aggressively,'' said Gonzalo Navarro, head currency trader at Banco Santander Central Hispano SA's unit in Lima. ``The central bank's main worry is inflation and the weaker sol can translate into inflation pressures.''

The yield on the nation's 8.6 percent sol-denominated bond due in August 2017 was little changed at 8 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.'s unit in Lima.

Argentina will buy back as much as 200 million pesos ($66 million) worth of local bonds tomorrow, the Economy Ministry said in a statement. The buyback is a part of a plan the government announced last month after bonds plunged on concern tax revenue growth is slowing and inflation is accelerating.

Chilean Rates

The government said yesterday it would repay its $6.7 billion of defaulted debt with the Paris Club, an informal association of creditors that works to bail out troubled sovereign debtors. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said she signed a decree allowing Argentina to draw on the central bank's $47.1 billion in international reserves to pay the debt.

The yield on Argentina's inflation-linked peso bonds due in February 2033 rose 7 basis points to 9.91 percent, according to Citigroup Inc.'s unit in Argentina. The peso advanced 0.03 percent to 3.0370 per dollar, from 3.0380 yesterday.

In Chile, the peso gained 0.2 percent to 515.26 per dollar, from 516.44 yesterday. The yield for a basket of five-year peso bonds in inflation-linked currency units, called unidades de fomento, fell 8 basis points to 2.97 percent, according to Bloomberg composite prices.

Banco Central de Chile will raise its overnight lending rate a half-percentage point to 8.25 percent tomorrow, according to 15 of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The other four analysts forecast an increase to 8 percent.

Venezuela's bolivar gained 1.2 percent to 4 per dollar in the black market from 4.05 yesterday, traders said. The government pegs the currency at an official exchange rate of 2.15 per dollar under restrictions imposed in 2003. Venezuelans turn to the parallel market when they can't get government approval to buy dollars at the official rate.