Resources stocks boost Chile bourse, peso near 9-mo high

(Updates with close)

By Alexia Vlahos

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

The blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA closed 0.41 percent firmer at 3,118.99 points, preliminary closing data showed, while the all-market IGPA index .IGPA rose 0.36 percent to 14,916.96 points.

"The rise in (steelmaker) CAP influenced the market today, as well as (industrial conglomerate) Copec and (fertilizer and lithium producer) Soquimich -- basically commodities," said Felipe Cruz, a trader at the CorpCapital brokerage.

"These shares had been hard-hit in recent days and today they recovered a bit, though I still think the market could correct lower."

The IPSA, which is now up 31.2 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 2.51 percent to 13,468 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 1.23 percent to 19,484 pesos, after it plunged more than 6 percent on Wednesday.

Industrial conglomerate Copec COP.SN, the most heavily weighted company on the bourse, rose 1.59 percent to 6,585 pesos a share.

Shares in retailer Ripley RIP.SN fell 0.96 percent to 410 pesos, while rival La Polar LAP.SN fell 1.78 percent to 2,151.90 pesos a share.

Chile's leading airline LAN LAN.SN rose 0.99 percent to 6,710.20 pesos.

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

The peso CLP=CL closed 1.52 percent firmer to 537.80/538.30 per 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. (With reporting by Froilan Romero and Manuel Farias; Editing by Kenneth Barry)