Scioli has focused his campaigning on trying to demonize Macri, suggesting that he will bring austerity measures that will cut consumer spending and cause a surge in unemployment and poverty.
Scioli, Fernandez's handpicked successor who many had been expecting to sail to an election victory in October, launched attack ads against Macri in the days leading up to the runoff.
For Fernandez, who's slated to leave office in December after eight years at the helm, it was a test of whether her populist political legacy would endure. Argentina's Vice President Daniel Scioli, center, watched as Cristina Fernandez received the presidential cane from her husband, outgoing President Nestor Kirchner, after being sworn in.
Scioli conceded defeat as he called Macri to offer his congratulations on the victory.
The increasingly tense campaign was fought on shifting political ground in the vast South American nation of 42 million people. But neither candidate won outright, forcing Argentina's first-ever runoff.
The local Merval stock index has shot up 25 percent since Macri's muscular performance in the first round, as investors factored in the possibility he will win the run-off and free up markets by dismantling currency and trade controls. Final results are expected later Sunday.
Polling stations will open from 8 am local time to 6 pm local time. However, they are allowed to project a victor when the polls close. The exit polls are done by media companies such as C5N and Canal America.
The polls have closed in Argentina's presidential election. There were no reports of large scale disturbances. Voting was due to close at 2100 GMT with first results expected in the following hours. The surveys show that about 4.7 percent of voters remained undecided with another 3.2 percent planning to cast blank votes.
In Argentine, voting is compulsory for all people aged between 18 and 70, but optional for those under 18 and over 70.
In the fifteen minutes long speech Scioli strongly condemned statements from Jaime Duran Barba, who is Macri's campaign strategist and quoted saying that "no citizen votes asking the Pope whom he should support", and added that Francis "doesn't change not even ten votes in an election".
"The streets in peace, people working and taking vacation - we have never had a period of government with this reality of economic stability and progress", Fernandez said.
Whoever is sworn in on December 10 will inherit a yawning fiscal deficit that Ms Fernandez has financed by printing pesos, contributing to double digit inflation. But a source at the election body said the result trend was irreversible at this point of vote counting.
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