Updates with afternoon trading levels

By Pranav Kashyap, Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan

April 14 (Reuters) - Argentina's peso slid after the nation eased its currency controls, while stocks and bonds led a rally across Latin America with markets closely monitoring any developments on the U.S. tariff landscape.

The peso ARS=RASL weakened nearly 10% and was last at 1195 against the dollar. The gap between the official rate and parallel market rate narrowed sharply, with the official exchange rate weakening and parallel rates gaining.

This decline followed the introduction of a new exchange rate regime, where the central bank relaxed its grip on currency controls and the peso was allowed to float freely within a gradually expanding band between 1,000-1,400 pesos per dollar.

Assets in the country saw broad-based gains as investors also cheered billion-dollar loan agreements signed with international lenders including the International Monetary Fund.

The country's Merval stock index .MERV jumped over 4%, with YPF YPFDm.BA adding more than 5% after brokerage HSBC upgraded the oil giant to "hold" from "reduce".

Hard-currency bonds rallied across the board, with the 2046 maturity 040114HW3=1M jumping close to 7 cents on the dollar, while U.S.-listed Global X's exchange traded fund ARGT.N surged 5.8%.

"The announcement of a managed float within bands checks two important boxes: first, it represents a big step towards a free trading currency and second, it relieves fears around a sharp overnight devaluation," said Malcolm Dorson, senior EM portfolio manager at Global X.

International dollar bonds in Ecuador rallied after business heir and incumbent Daniel Noboa won a presidential runoff by a wider-than-expected margin.

The 2030 maturity XS2214237807=TE rallied more than 12 cents on the dollar, while the 2040 note XS2214239175=TE surged more than 10 cents to trade at 49.5 cents, Tradeweb data showed.

Meanwhile, the broader Latin American equities index .MILA00000PUS rebounded by 2.6%, while a currencies index .MILA00000CUS added 1%.

Brazil's real BRL= appreciated 0.2%, while Mexico's peso MXN= firmed more than 1% to 20.1 per U.S. dollar.

Global markets were relieved after the White House exempted smartphones and computers from the "reciprocal" tariffs on China, following the 90-day pause U.S. President Donald Trump announced on some levies late last week.

"In our view, LatAm will likely benefit from easing economic policy uncertainty. However, the market will react to any news on tariff negotiations," said Bertrand Delgado, senior emerging markets strategist at Societe Generale.

"LatAm should also benefit from China and the EU stepping up monetary and fiscal stimulus to reduce growth risks... if global recession risk subsides, we are constructive on LatAm FX, which we see recovering from the recent sell-of."

Sovereign dollar-denominated bonds of most frontier nations including Egypt, Kenya, Ukraine and Ghana also moved higher in a broader risk-off move.

However, uncertainties persisted after Trump said further semiconductor levies remain imminent, while brokerages have said the tariff turmoil has already damaged the global economy.

Global risk assets have been hammered lately on growing prospects that Trump's tariffs could lead to a recession in the United States, which could also weigh on demand for resources such as industrial metals and crude oil - top contributors to export revenues for economies in Latin America.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap, Johann M Cherian and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Chopra and Devika Syamnath)

((Pranav.Kashyap@thomsonreuters.com; +919886482111; Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com))