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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Chile Stocks End Sharply Higher but Close 2Q With 6.3% Decline

Chile's IPSA select-stock index closed sharply higher Friday on global market euphoria fueled by the outcome of a European leaders' summit, but posted a 6.3% decline in the second quarter as the euro zone's debt crisis hurt markets worldwide.


The IPSA ended 1.5% higher at 4397.18 Friday, while market volume increased to 127.69 billion Chilean pesos ($254.87 million) from CLP76.16 billion Thursday.

The euro zone's crisis took the second quarter's spotlight and Chile, as a small, open commodity-dependent economy, faced the effects of lower prices in commodities and lower demand from Europe, despite its economic activity growing 5.4% between January and April.

The euro-zone summit in Brussels Thursday and Friday made more progress than market participants expected in addressing the common bloc's debt issues.

The meeting, in which European leaders agreed to aid banks without adding to government debt, gave "some relief to markets but the crisis is far from over," said Carlos Rumie, a trader at Celfin Capital.

In the Santiago Stock Exchange, commodities-related shares such as fuel and forestry conglomerate Copec (COPEC.SN) and pulp and paper producer CMPC (CMPC.SN) jumped more than 3%. Copec ended 3.5% higher at CLP7,389.90 while CMPC closed 3.7% higher at CLP1,997.40.

Banking-sector shares also surged, with Banco Santander-Santiago (BSAC, BSANTANDE.SN) gaining 1.3% to end at CLP37.34.

In other local markets, the peso closed 1.7% stronger against the dollar Friday, but depreciated 3.7% during the second quarter as it tracked the euro on continued concerns about the euro zone's financial crisis.

The peso ended at CLP501.00 against the dollar Friday, versus Thursday's close of CLP509.40, after trading in a range of CLP500.30 to CLP503.60.

In the fixed-income market, yields on inflation-indexed Chilean central bank bonds, or BCUs, ended higher, also fueled by the global market optimism.

The yield on five-year BCU bonds finished at 2.36%, up from 2.32% Thursday, while the yield on 10-year BCUs closed at 2.49%, up from 2.44% on the previous session.

During the quarter, the yield on five-year BCUs dropped eight basis points while the yield on 10-year BCUs ended 15 basis points lower.

foxbusiness.com

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