EMERGING MARKETS-Latam stocks up as Petrobras to price offer

* Petrobras at highest in nearly 11 months on offering

* Bovespa up 1.55 pct

* Mexico's Banorte slides as Deutsche cuts to "sell" (Updates to afternoon)

By Luciana Lopez and Caroline Stauffer

SAO PAULO/MEXICO CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Latin American stocks hit their highest intraday levels in five months on Thursday as markets awaited the pricing of a share offering from Petrobras expected to be the biggest in history.

The MSCI Latin American stocks index .MILA00000PUS rose 1 percent, earlier reaching its intraday levels of mid-April and adding to gains of the previous session.

In Brazil, the Bovespa index .BVSP climbed 1.6 percent and hit levels last seen in late April.

Those gains came as preferred shares of state-controlled energy company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) shot up 5 percent, tracking what could be the stock's biggest one-day jump since last October.

Common stock in Petrobras (PETR3.SA) gained 3.9 percent in the afternoon.

The company prices later in the day a stock offering that could reach $79 billion, pushing the South American country into the elite of global finance. [ID:nN23137370]

"The Petrobras sale has brought the market into this better mood," said Jankiel Santos, chief economist for BES Investimento in Sao Paulo.

Petrobras shares took a beating this year as investors saw more questions than answers in the massive capitalization plan, which includes an oil-for-shares swap with the government.

But the share sale in fact was "comfortably oversubscribed," sources told Reuters, particularly thanks to the participation of state pension funds and institutional investors. [ID:nN22106989]

Also rising in Brazil were shares of mining company Vale (VALE5.SA), the world's largest producer of iron ore, up 1.1 percent.

Shares of private-sector bank Bradesco (BBDC4.SA) advanced 1.7 percent. UBS analyst Alcir Freitas wrote in a note to clients that the bank "is very well exposed to the fastest growing loan products, and has been recording one of the most consistent enhancements in non-performing loan formation."

Mexico's IPC .MXX fell 0.2 percent on mixed economic data in the United States and Europe. [ID:nN23151459]

Billionaire Carlos Slim's telecommunications company America Movil (AMXL.MX) rose 0.2 percent.

Shares in Grupo Banorte (GFNORTEO.MX), Mexico's No. 3 bank in total loans, shed 3.5 percent.

Deutsche Bank cut its rating on Banorte to "sell" from "hold" on Thursday, citing its exposure to airline Mexicana de Aviacion, which ceased operations in August. [ID:nN23131085]

Chile's IPSA index .IPSA slipped 0.8 percent.

Among stocks falling were retailers Falabella FAL.SN, down 0.92 percent, and Cencosud CEN.SN, down 1.87 percent. (Additional reporting by Alvaro Tapia in Santiago and Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)