• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Chile shares dip eyeing earnings, peso slips

Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:51pm EDT

Stocks

   

By Alexia Vlahos

SANTIAGO, April 23 (Reuters) - Chilean shares were slightly weaker in Thursday afternoon trade, tracking choppy trade on Wall Street as investors wait for local quarterly earnings, while the peso closed slightly weaker, traders said.

The IPSA .IPSA leading share index was 0.1 percent weaker at 2,673 points while the all-market IGPA index .IGPA was 0.02 percent weaker at 12,748 points.

"Nobody is taking an aggressive position because they are waiting to find out company results, which will be a good thermometer to know how the economy is faring," said Pamela Auszenker, head of research at brokerage Bci.

Traders are waiting for a host of Chilean companies to release first-quarter earnings data over the next six weeks, which will give investors a clearer view of how they are coping with the global crisis.

Soquimich SQM_pb.SN, Chile's leading exporter of fertilizer and the world's biggest producer of iodine and lithium, rose 0.34 percent to 17,750 pesos a share.

CCU CCU.SN, Chile's largest brewer, fell 1.98 percent to 3,470 pesos, while industrial conglomerate Copec COP.SN, the most heavily weighted share on the bourse, fell 1.24 percent to 5,775 pesos.

Banco de Chile CHI.SN, Chile's second biggest bank, rose 0.30 percent to 33.90 pesos, while leading private bank Santander Chile STG.SN rose 0.43 percent to 20.86 pesos a share.

Cencosud CEN.SN, one of Latin America's biggest retailers, fell 0.69 percent to 1,140 pesos a share.

Shares of regional energy group Enersis ENE.SN rose 0.63 percent to 177.85 pesos a share, while electricity generator Endesa Chile (END.SN) fell 0.4 percent to 739 pesos.

The peso CLP=CL closed 0.17 percent weaker at 584.80/585.30 per dollar compared with Wednesday's close at 583.80/584.10.

"The scenario is very much similar to yesterday, with European bourses down, Wall Street very volatile, and copper down again," said one currency dealer.

The peso is now up 9.61 percent against the dollar for the year-to-date, after depreciating 22.3 percent in 2008.



More from Reuters

Demonstrator holds a signboard with a slogan "Bla bla bla ACT NOW" during a rally outside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen December 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

"Polluters are given rights to continue their dirty habits"

A climate change scientist blasts proposals for a cap and trade system, arguing it allows dirty industries to continue polluting, instead of rewarding innovation.  Full Article | Full Coverage 

    Climate Conference
    People walk by a Bank of America branch in New York. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

    The search is on -- again

    Bank of America has less than two weeks left before Chief Executive Ken Lewis steps down. With the top candidate out of the picture, here's a look at what might happen next.  Full Article 

    Executive compensation
    Indian woman mourns death of her relative killed in tsunami in Cuddalore. When an earthquake of magnitude 9.15 struck off Indonesia's Aceh province on December, 26, 2004, it triggered a huge tsuanmi that raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. The worst natural disaster of the decade left 230,000 people dead or missing. Taken on December 28, 2004 by Arko Datta

    Pictures that defined a decade

    A woman's grief amid the tsunami devastation and one woman's fight against police in the Amazon are among the indelible Reuters images of the last 10 years.  Slideshow 

    Pictures