Chilean stock indexes edged up to a second consecutive record close on Friday, as global and local worries about rising interest rates subsided. The all-market IGPA index rose 0.16 percent to 14,651.47 points, while the trade-weighted blue chip IPSA index advanced 0.25 percent to 3,380.13 points.
Chilean stocks were bolstered along with global markets by tame US inflation data on Friday and by the Chilean central bank's decision on Thursday to hold the benchmark interest rate at 5 percent. "There were two important news items, US core inflation, which calmed stock markets and strengthened emerging currencies a bit, and the central bank decision to maintain the rate," said Agustin Alvarez, an analyst with the BICE brokerage.
The bank said future rate increases would be considered if inflation exceeded the target rate of 3 percent, a declaration Alvarez said was well received by the market. "The statement was much softer than expected." "Next week we'll have to see what happens abroad and with the bond market, which has been very volatile," he added.
Soquimich (SQM), a mineral fertiliser exporter and the world's leading producer of iodine and lithium led blue chip gains, as its stock jumped 4.13 percent to 9,080 pesos a share. Other heavily weighted advancing shares included Endesa Spain regional investment group Enersis, up 0.81 percent, and regional retailer Cencosud with a gain of 1.19 percent.
Shares in dominant fixed line Telecommunications Company Telefonica, a unit of Telefonica Spain, rose 1.22 percent to 1,245 pesos a share. Chilean inflation-adjusted 5-year central bank bond yields fell to 3.02 percent compared with the prior session's close at 3.06 percent, the first decline in seven sessions.
The Chilean peso rose 0.62 percent to close at 525.20/525.50 per dollar compared with Thursday's close at 528.50/529.00. "The peso's gain is based mainly on global conditions, with generalised gains in world stock markets and in emerging currencies resulting from good US inflation figures," a currency broker said.