Chilean stocks fell on Friday in mixed trade, retreating from life highs and led lower by losses in airline LAN a day after president-elect Sebastian Pinera offered a $1.23 billion stake for sale, while the peso ended slightly lower. Chile's blue chip IPSA stock index fell 0.38 percent to 3,845.05 points, pulling further back from the previous life closing high of 3,860.71 hit on Wednesday.
The IPSA, which is up around 8 percent year-to-date, has hit a series of new highs in recent months. The all-market IGPA closed 0.29 percent lower at 17,823.69. Analysts expect retail and commodity shares to continue to fuel a rally this year but say the market, one of the world's best performers year-to-date, could well see a correction in the short term. "There was no clear trend today. There is probably some profit-taking and a little bit of a pause after we hit life highs," said Claudio Gonzalez, head of research at the Tanner brokerage.
Brazil's Bovespa stock index fell 0.35 percent while Mexico's IPC index was unchanged. In local trade, dominant airline LAN was the day's most heavily traded share, ending 0.85 percent lower at 9,160 pesos a share, a day after Pinera's holding companies said they offered a 21.18 percent stake in LAN worth $1.23 billion to Chile's Cueto family.
Shares in LAN had fallen 0.78 percent on Thursday after surging 2.5 percent on Wednesday. Industrial conglomerate Copec, the most heavily weighted stock on the Santiago bourse, fell 1.72 percent to 8,300 pesos, while shares in steel and iron ore producer CAP rose 0.83 percent to 16,435 pesos each.
The Chilean peso closed little changed, slipping 0.09 percent to 532.00/532.50 per US dollar compared with Thursday's close of 531.50/532.00. The peso has seesawed in volatile trade in recent sessions, but is seen trending higher. "I think the shock or over-reaction to the Fed's rate hike is passing," said one foreign exchange trader, citing dollar sales by pension funds. The peso is trading nearly 5 percent lower against the dollar so far this year after surging more than 26 percent in 2009.
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