EMERGING MARKETS-Most Latam currencies subdued; eyes on Brazil's vaccination campaign

By Shreyashi Sanyal Jan 18 (Reuters) - Brazil's real eked out gains on Monday as the country geared up to send vaccine doses across its states later in the day, while most other currencies in Latin America were subdued against a strengthening dollar. The real edged 0.3% higher to 5.34 against the dollar, with investors eying the start of a vaccination campaign from 5 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Monday, a plan that was initially due to start on Jan. 20. Brazil will roll out the only vaccine available by the government - the CoronaVac shot made by China's Sinovac Biotech and imported by the Butantan biomedical center in Sao Paulo. "Despite COVID-19 and domestic fiscal uncertainty, mostly due to the global inflow of capital to the EM sphere, we still see the USDBRL trading at 5.05 by end-2021 and 4.95 by end-2022," said Mauricio Une, senior strategist at Rabobank. Data showed economic activity in Brazil rose in November for a seventh straight month, slightly more than economists had expected although it was the smallest increase during that growth streak. Other currencies in Latin America fell as the dollar continued its rally to hit a four-week high, with markets watching the new U.S. administration's stance on the greenback as President-elect Joe Biden gears up to take office on Wednesday. Mexico's peso fell 0.4% against the dollar as oil prices weakened on rising coronavirus cases and a slowing pace of vaccinations across the world. The Chilean peso slipped 0.5%. The country's central bank last week announced a plan to purchase $12 billion over the next 15 months to replenish and expand its foreign currency reserves. Among stock indices in the region, Brazil's Bovespa gained nearly 1% after data showed China's economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic rages unabated. China is the biggest importer of agricultural goods and metals from Brazil. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1403 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1356.27 -0.13 MSCI LatAm 2485.69 0.18 Brazil Bovespa 121586.94 1.03 Mexico IPC 0.00 0 Chile IPSA 4537.53 -0.76 Argentina MerVal 0.00 0 Colombia COLCAP 1452.58 0 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3027 0.34 Mexico peso 19.8566 -0.43 Chile peso 738.7 -0.72 Colombia peso 3459.98 0.00 Peru sol 3.6127 0.00 Argentina peso (interbank) 86.0600 -0.37 Argentina peso (parallel) 155 2.58 (Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)