Chilean shares edged up at the close on Friday, recovering with other regional markets that climbed out of negative territory, traders said. Chile's blue chip IPSA index closed up 0.03 percent at 2,494.93 points, after rising 0.95 percent on Thursday. The all-market IGPA index rose 0.05 percent to 11,882.12 points, preliminary closing figures showed.
The US S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite stock indexes also rose on Friday, boosted by resource shares that gained with commodities prices and also helped nudge markets in Latin America upward. "We're shadowing a bit what is happening abroad," said Marcelo Ogaz, senior analyst at BICE Inversiones brokerage.
Percentage gainers included regional energy group Enersis, whose shares rose 1.19 percent, and Soquimich, Chile's leading exporter of fertiliser and the world's biggest producer of iodine and lithium, up 1.06 percent. Shares in Banco Santander, Chile's largest bank and a unit of Spain's Santander, rose 0.34 percent, while fellow bank Banco de Chile fell 0.58 percent.
Shares in retailer D&S were up 1.22 percent after retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it successfully acquired a majority stake in the supermarket chain in a deal analysts valued at around $1.5 billion. Wal-Mart said it secured a 58.2 percent stake in D&S, while brothers Felipe and Nicolas Ibanez Scott retained about 40.1 percent of the shares, leaving about 1.7 percent in the hands of the public.
Shares in rival retailer Cencosud, seen most at risk from Wal-Mart, fell 0.58 percent. Loss leaders included companies like industrial conglomerate and bourse heavyweight Copec, which closed down 2.01 percent after gaining 1.75 percent on Thursday, while shares in steelmaker CAP were down 0.63 percent. Chile's peso closed 0.02 percent weaker against the dollar to end at 620.20/620.70 per dollar, compared with the close on Thursday at 620.30/623.80. The peso has appreciated more than 3 percent in the year-to-date after weakening 22.3 percent against the dollar in 2008.