Chilean blue chips rose on Friday, although they were held back by a sharp drop in shares of retailer Cencosud after criticism from Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, while the peso closed unchanged.
The IPSA blue chip index rose 0.61 percent to 2,069.49 points while the broader IGPA index fell 0.08 percent to 9,514.44, preliminary closing figures showed.
Diversified retailer Cencosud was the focus of the day, as its stock fell 3.93 percent to 1,099 pesos in heavy trade and the company accounted for about a third of the day's trade value.
"The issue of Kirchner's remarks regarding Cencosud have affected trade today," said Alfa brokerage analyst Rodrigo Cristi.
Cencosud fell into the eye of a political firestorm on Thursday when Argentine president Nestor Kirchner accused owner Horst Paulmann of "signs of corruption" after Paulmann said he anticipated Argentine courts would rule favourably on the merger of a domestic retailer with his company.
In the rest of the market the trend was upward in moderate volume.
"You can't expect much more activity, given the US holiday yesterday and the fact that US markets closed early today," Cristi said.
Dominant air carrier LAN Airlines led gains for the blue chips, rising 5.73 percent to 3,890 pesos a share. Other gainers included stock in regional energy giant Enersis, rising 2.04 percent to 125 pesos a share. On the foreign exchange market the Chilean peso closed unchanged at 523.50/524.00 per dollar.
"Just like yesterday, we were limited because the US markets weren't at full steam following yesterday's Thanksgiving holiday," said Eugenio Garay. "There was hardly any variation and volumes were down by almost half.
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