Commodities stocks boost Chile bourse, peso firms

By Alexia Vlahos

SANTIAGO, June 18 (Reuters) - Chile's leading share index firmed on Thursday, rising with commodity stocks a day after its biggest one-day percentage fall since December, while the peso ended at another near 9-month high, traders said.

The blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA was 0.84 percent firmer at 3,132 while the all-market IGPA index .IGPA rose 0.66 percent to 14,961.

"There is a small bounce in (steelmaker) CAP which had one of the biggest falls yesterday," Roberto Guzman, head of investment at the FIT Research brokerage. "Retail shares are also seeing more demand."

Resource-based stocks rebounded on Thursday after a sharp fall on Wednesday due to profit-taking following recent gains.

The IPSA, which is up 32 percent year-to-date, rose around 16 percent in May, when it posted its biggest gain in a single month since January 1994.

Last week the Chilean bourse hit its highest levels since December 2007.

Shares in Steelmaker CAP CAP.SN rose 3.17 percent to 13,555 pesos after sinking more than 5 percent the day before.

Soquimich SQM_pb.SN, Chile's leading exporter of fertilizer and one of the world's biggest producers of iodine and lithium, rose 1.32 percent to 19,501 pesos after it plunged over 6 percent on Wednesday.

Cencosud CEN.SN, one of Latin America's largest retailers, edged up 0.02 percent to 1,400 pesos, ceding earlier gains which took it as high as 1,420.

Shares in retailer Ripley RIP.SN fell 0.96 percent to 410 pesos, while rival La Polar LAP.SN fell 0.96 percent to 2,170 pesos.

Industrial conglomerate Copec COP.SN, the most heavily weighted company on the bourse, rose 2.57 percent to 6,649 pesos a share.

Chile's peso closed at a fresh near-9-month high on dollar weakness, gains on foreign bourses and new government plan to repatriate and convert $4 billion in savings into pesos, dealers said.

The peso CLP=CL closed 1.52 percent firmer at 537.80/538.30 per U.S. dollar compared to Wednesday's close at 546.00/546.50.

The government said on Monday it would cash in $4 billion in windfall copper savings to counter a ballooning fiscal deficit. The central bank will sell the dollars for pesos on behalf of the government starting in July.

The peso is now up 19.19 percent against the dollar year-to-date after slumping 22.3 percent in 2008. (Additional reporting by Froilan Romero and Manuel Farias; Editing by James Dalgleish)