Beer and bottling company Femsa bucked the stock market's negative trend, rising 2.20 % to 53.04 pesos on news that a 30 % stake in its beer operation will be passed from Belgium's Interbrew to Brazil's AmBev as part of a merger of the two companies.

Traders said the $11.5 billion merger, which would create the world's largest brewery by volume, has sparked a revaluation of beer companies' stocks.

Femsa's New York-traded shares rose 0.15 percent to finish at $47.47.

05 March, 2004