Chile shares slip on profit-taking, peso flat

(Updates with bourse close, fresh trader comment)

By Alexia Vlahos

SANTIAGO, June 12 (Reuters) - Chilean shares closed slightly weaker on Friday as investors took profits a day after they hit their highest level since early December 2007, while the peso ended flat, traders said.

The blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA closed down 0.16 percent at 3,252.50 points, preliminary closing data showed, while the all-market IGPA index .IGPA fell 0.12 percent to 15,448.49 points.

"It was profit-taking basically," said Felipe Cruz, a trader at the CorpCapital brokerage. "The market had risen a lot and people had been waiting for the bourse to correct a bit before coming in."

The IPSA, which is up 36.9 percent year-to-date, rose around 16 percent in May, when it posted its biggest gain in a single month since January 1994.

Soquimich SQM_pb.SN, Chile's leading exporter of fertilizer and one of the world's biggest producers of iodine and lithium, fell 1.08 percent to 21,603 pesos, while regional energy group Enersis ENE.SN fell 0.52 percent to 193.73 pesos.

Shares in Steelmaker CAP CAP.SN rose 1.26 percent to 14,990 pesos.

Cencosud CEN.SN, one of Latin America's largest retailers, fell 0.34 percent to 1,456.50 pesos, while retailer La Polar LAP.SN fell 0.10 percent to 2,201.20 pesos a share.

Chile's peso CLP=CL closed flat at 562.00/562.30 per dollar compared with Thursday's close of 562.00/562.50.

"It was quite a slow day with low volume trade and with slightly negative fundamentals, which didn't have a big effect on the exchange rate," said one foreign exchange dealer.

The peso is up 14.1 percent against the dollar year-to-date after slumping 22.3 percent in 2008. (With reporting by Froilan Romero and Manuel Farias; Editing by Dan Grebler)