Colombia Markets Closed for Boyacá; De La Espriella Takes Office
Key Facts
- Colombian markets were closed on Friday, with the Battle of Boyacá holiday shutting the stock exchange, the banks and the currency desks
- The COLCAP ends the week at 2,350.94, down from 2,374.67 on Tuesday after a mid-week slide that the Thursday session only partly repaired
- The peso finished at 3,153 per dollar, capping a three-session slide of 44.10 pesos in a year that has taken the dollar down 15.31%
- Abelardo De La Espriella took office in Cali, naming the recovery of Ecopetrol a definitive and absolute priority and promising to authorise fracking
- Trading resumes on Monday, giving the market its first chance to price four days of announcements at once
Today’s Focus
Colombia did not trade on Friday. The Battle of Boyacá is one of the country’s fixed holidays, and it is no accident that the presidential handover falls on it—the exchange, the banks and the currency desks were all closed while Abelardo De La Espriella took the oath in Cali.
That leaves Thursday’s COLCAP close of 2,350.94 as the week’s final reading, and it was not a comfortable week. The index gave up ground on three of the four sessions that were held.
The currency told a happier story, as it has all year. The dollar ended at 3,153 pesos, 44.10 pesos lower than on Tuesday and 15.31% down over twelve months.
What matters today. Colombia has a four-day gap between a change of government and the first chance to trade on it, which is a long time for expectations to build.
01 The session in one read
There was no session. Friday 7 August is the Battle of Boyacá, the national holiday marking the 1819 battle outside Tunja that decided Colombia’s independence, and unlike most Colombian holidays it never shifts to the following Monday.
The exchange calendar lists it among eighteen closures for 2026, and the Banco de la República treats it as a bank holiday. The next one comes quickly: Monday 17 August is closed too.
That fixed date is also why the handover happens when it does. De La Espriella was sworn in at the Universidad Santiago de Cali and gave his first address as head of state at the Pichincha garrison in the same city, opening the 2026—2030 term.
So the week’s closing picture is Thursday’s, and it is a picture of a market that lost its footing in the middle of the week and only partly recovered it.
The market has already traded the election twice—once on the euphoria before the second round, and once on the reversal the Monday after, when Ecopetrol shed 8.52% in Bogotá in a single session. What it has not traded is a specific legislative programme, and Friday produced one: a tax overhaul with the wealth tax removed, authorisation of fracking, a spending freeze and an explicit promise to leave the central bank alone. The energy names have the clearest line of sight into Monday, while the fiscal side will be judged on whether a simplified tax system can be squared with a freeze rather than on the announcement itself.
02 The week’s numbers
| Measure | Level | Change | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| COLCAP | 2,350.94 | +0.26% | Thursday’s close; no Friday session |
| COLCAP, Tuesday to Thursday | 2,374.67 — 2,350.94 | −1.00% | The week’s net direction |
| USD/COP | 3,153.00 | −1.38% | Tuesday’s close to Thursday’s |
| USD/COP, past year | — | −15.31% | Peso was July’s strongest currency worldwide |
| Central bank rate | 9.25% | — | Held, against 3.50−3.75% in the United States |
| Key technical level | 2,400 | — | Round-number barrier above the close |
The headline gain flatters the week. From Tuesday’s close of 2,374.67 to Thursday’s 2,350.94 the index lost 23.73 points, or 1.00%, by The Rio Times’ calculation.
Set against the year, that is a scratch rather than a wound. The COLCAP was still up 14.83% for 2026 as of Tuesday, and its record high of 2,562.00, reached on 27 January, remains the marker to beat. Rio Times · Live Market Intelligence
Live Market IntelligenceColombia — Live Market Board
Colombia — Live Market Board
Instrument Last Change YoY Prev. High Low Volume
COLCAP
2,350.44
+0.00%
—
9.04
9.05
9.02
4,133
USD/COP
3,153
-0.89%
-22.03%
3,181
3,159
3,148
—
BRENT
83.55
+1.29%
+25.47%
82.49
84.39
81.50
35,386
WTI
78.18
+1.15%
+22.39%
77.29
78.77
76.53
206,437
ECOPETROL
16.78
-3.56%
+96.26%
17.40
17.35
16.51
1,963,597
BANCOLOMBIA
88.85
-1.55%
+88.84%
90.25
91.28
87.97
147,816
GRUPO AVAL
5.06
-0.98%
+67.55%
5.11
5.18
5.06
56,602
TECNOGLASS
44.14
-0.74%
-40.63%
44.47
45.20
43.53
387,805
CREDICORP
386.93
-1.44%
+55.27%
392.57
396.02
385.44
206,875
BUENAVENTURA
34.15
+4.88%
+86.31%
32.56
35.15
33.58
1,428,758
SOUTHERN COPPER
199.06
+3.12%
+106.12%
193.03
201.33
195.35
1,028,736
03 Why it moved — a closed exchange and a change of government
The reason nothing moved on Friday is simple, but what was said that day matters more than usual for the index. Ecopetrol is the heaviest weight in the COLCAP, and the new president devoted a large part of his address to it.
He described the company as having been depleted, citing profits that fell from around 33 trillion pesos in 2022 to nine trillion last year. Recovering it, he said, would be a definitive and absolute priority of his government.
The energy programme reached beyond the company. He committed to authorising fracking under technical standards, framed the use of natural resources as a question of sovereignty, and promised a push to rebuild oil and gas reserves.
That lands on a sector that has been contracting. Gran Tierra Energy agreed on Wednesday to sell its entire Colombian and Ecuadorian business for $1.33 billion, becoming the eighth international producer to leave Colombian exploration in five years.
On the fiscal side came a spending freeze and a structural tax reform meant to simplify the system and curb evasion, with removal of the wealth tax as the named measure. He also said he would respect the independence of the central bank, a pointed break with the previous four years.
04 The week on the exchange
| Session | COLCAP | Change | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 3 August | — | −0.31% | Grupo Argos preferred +4.72%; Ecopetrol −0.19% at 2,675 |
| Tuesday 4 August | 2,374.67 | −0.42% | ISA +2.68% best; turnover jumped 80.80% to $198,355m |
| Wednesday 5 August | 2,344.81 | −1.26% | The week’s damage; selling led by Cibest and ISA |
| Thursday 6 August | 2,350.94 | +0.26% | Partial repair as Brent settled 3.83% higher |
| Friday 7 August | — | closed | Battle of Boyacá holiday |
The shape of the week was a slow bleed followed by a small rescue. Monday and Tuesday drifted lower on modest losses, then Wednesday took 1.26% out of the index in one session, with the selling concentrated in two of the largest names, Cibest and ISA.
Tuesday was the outlier for activity rather than price. Turnover reached $198,355 million, an 80.80% jump on the previous day, which is the kind of volume that usually signals repositioning rather than conviction.
Thursday brought the only green session, and it came from outside. Brent settled 3.83% higher at $82.49 after Iran signalled it might bar some vessels from the Strait of Hormuz, which is straightforwardly good news for an economy that sells crude.
Individual names told a scattered story. ETB rose 6.38% on Tuesday and Grupo Argos preferred shares gained 4.72% on Monday, while Ecopetrol itself barely moved, closing Monday at 2,675 pesos with a 0.19% loss.
05 The peso’s remarkable year
The currency is where Colombia’s story has been all year, and it is worth setting out properly. The dollar has fallen 15.31% against the peso over twelve months, and in July alone the peso gained 9.84%, making it the strongest-performing currency in the world that month.
The mechanics are not mysterious. Colombia’s central bank has held its rate at 9.25% while the United States has come down to a range of 3.50% to 3.75%, and that gap pulls foreign money into peso-denominated assets.
This week showed the pattern in miniature. The dollar closed Tuesday at 3,197.10, eased to 3,177 on Wednesday—a fall of 20.10 pesos on turnover of US$1,295 million—and then dropped again on Thursday to 3,153.00, a fall of 44.10 pesos across the three sessions.
Thursday’s session was busy rather than jittery. Set-FX recorded more than US$1.284 billion across 1,446 deals, with the dollar opening at 3,190.00, touching 3,193.00 at the top and 3,148.75 at the bottom before settling.
Not everyone expects it to last. Bancolombia’s Grupo Cibest still forecasts an average of 3,878 pesos across 2026, well above where the rate sits now, citing fiscal uncertainty and the sovereign rating downgrade as sources of upward pressure.
There is also official weight on the other side of the trade. The Banco de la República is running a programme to buy up to US$4 billion to rebuild international reserves, which puts a steady, non-commercial bid for dollars into the market.
06 The regional scoreboard
| Index | Country | Change |
|---|---|---|
| COLCAP | Colombia | closed |
| IPC | Mexico | +0.82% |
| IPSA | Chile | −0.16% |
| Merval | Argentina | −0.45% |
| Ibovespa | Brazil | −1.73% |
While Bogotá rested, the rest of the region spent Friday trading a weak United States jobs report. Mexico’s IPC took it best, rising 0.82% to 66,938.64 on a market closely tied to the American cycle.
Brazil went the other way, with the Ibovespa down 1.73% as global investors rotated out of emerging markets and back into American technology shares. Chile eased 0.16% after a week that still finished 2.18% higher, and Argentina’s Merval fell 0.45% in a sixth consecutive decline.
07 The technical picture
The COLCAP goes into Monday at 2,350.94, in the middle of a band it has traded either side of for most of the past three weeks. The round 2,400 mark is the barrier overhead, and it has not been tested on convincing volume since the post-election reversal.
Below, the long rising line that has carried the index since last autumn runs well underneath the current level, which leaves room before any real damage. The caveat is participation: turnover in the domestic heavyweights has been thin outside Tuesday’s spike, and a four-day gap in trading tends to make the first session back sharper than the news alone deserves.
08 What to watch
- Monday’s reopening: The first session after the handover is the market’s only chance to price four days of announcements at once.
- Ecopetrol leadership: The government has signalled changes at the top of the company; names will matter more than the promise.
- The tax bill: Removal of the wealth tax has been named, but the full reform and how it squares with a spending freeze have not.
- The peso’s floor: Watch whether the central bank’s reserve buying slows the currency’s climb, and whether 3,150 holds as a level.
- Oil and the Strait of Hormuz: Crude gave back ground on Friday as reopening talks resurfaced, and Colombian assets follow it closely.
- Another closure: Monday 17 August is also a holiday, so August offers fewer trading days than usual.
Background: Gran Tierra to Sell Colombia, Ecuador Assets for US$1.33B.
Background: Latin America Stock Markets 2026: Ibovespa, Merval, COLCAP, IPSA and IPC Guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was there no trading in Colombia on Friday?
7 August is the Battle of Boyacá holiday, one of the few Colombian holidays that never moves to a Monday. The exchange, the banks and the currency market were all shut, which is also why the presidential handover is held on that date.
So what is the COLCAP’s closing level for the week?
2,350.94, set on Thursday 6 August. That figure stands until trading resumes on Monday 10 August.
Why has the Colombian peso been so strong?
Colombia’s central bank rate of 9.25% is far above the 3.50% to 3.75% range in the United States, which pulls foreign money into peso assets. A weaker dollar worldwide and steady remittance inflows have done the rest.
What did the new president say about Ecopetrol?
He called recovering the company a definitive and absolute priority, pointing to profits that fell from around 33 trillion pesos in 2022 to nine trillion last year. He also said he would authorise fracking under technical standards to rebuild oil and gas reserves.
Are there more market closures coming?
Yes. Monday 17 August is also a holiday, so August gives Colombian investors fewer trading days than a normal month.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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