EMERGING MARKETS-Latam stocks dip as China weighs

* Brazil seen as attractive after lukewarm 2010

* Petrobras bounces after steep drop on previous day

* Brazil's Bovespa up 0.31 pct, Mexico's IPC down 0.2 pct

(Updates to afternoon)

By Michael O'Boyle and Luciana Lopez

MEXICO CITY/SAO PAULO, Brazil, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Latin American stocks dipped on Friday following news that China had tightened bank reserve requirements, but Brazilian stocks gained as oil company Petrobras rebounded from recent losses.

The MSCI Latin American stocks index .MILA00000PUS dropped 0.27 percent, helping the gauge recover losses made during the previous week but leaving it flat so far in 2011.

China, a major global commodities consumer and Latin American trading partner, raised bank reserve requirements on Friday for the fourth time in just over two months. For details, see [ID:nTOE706030]

"The reserve requirements there affect the prices of and demand for commodities," said Andre Luis Querne, a partner at asset management firm Rio Gestao de Recursos.

Investors are concerned that China could make even tougher moves to curb strong growth and rising inflation. That could have knock-on effects around the world, curbing expectations for global growth and demand for Latin America's commodities.

Regional bourses were mixed. Brazil's Bovespa stock index .BVSP rose 0.31 percent, while Mexico's IPC index .MXX dipped 0.2 percent, giving up much of the ground gained on Thursday.

Analysts noted Mexico's stock market has underperformed this week, hurt by selling from local pension funds.

The peso hit a more than two-year high against the dollar, and some pension funds jumped to snap up stocks in the United States and Brazil.

"The Brazilian market is very attractive because it did not go anywhere last year," said Rodolfo Navarrete, an analyst at brokerage Vector.

While Brazil's market gained only around 1 percent last year, Mexico notched a nearly 20 percent advance and has hit repeated record highs, peaking most recently on Jan. 3.

"Mexico is expensive, but with more flows expected from abroad into our stock market, it will get going," Navarrete added.

Preferred shares of Brazilian state-controlled energy company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) pushed up the Bovespa index, rising 0.88 percent. That stock tumbled in the previous session, posting its biggest one-day drop since November.

Jetmaker Embraer (EMBR3.SA) vaulted 10 percent, Friday's strongest gainer in the index.

Goldman Sachs analysts, led by Noah Poponak, on Friday added the company's American Depositary Receipts (ERJ.N) to the bank's "conviction buy" list. [ID:nN14142977]

"Embraer is an under the radar, uniquely positioned, emerging-market driven, late cycle industrial with a strong balance sheet and 3 percent dividend yield," Poponak and his team wrote in a report.

In Mexico, the country's most liquid stocks suffered as pension funds sought better prospects elsewhere, traders said.

Top retailer Wal-Mart de Mexico (WALMEXV.MX) shed 0.87 percent, miner Grupo Mexico (GMEXICOB.MX) lost 1.04 percent and telecom company America Movil (AMXL.MX) gave up 0.28 percent for a possible fourth losing session out of five.

In Chile, the blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA declined 0.16 percent in choppy trading.

The Santiago stock exchange has come uncoupled from regional bourses in recent weeks after Chile's central bank announced a $12 billion currency intervention.

Retailer Falabella FAL.SN lost 1.32 percent while its rival Cencosud CEN.SN shed 1.29 percent. (Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Kenneth Barry)