MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's stock market rises to record high

Chilean stocks rose to the week's third record close on Friday. The Santiago Stock Exchange's Ipsa index, tracking the 40 most sold stocks, rose 0.32% to 2,356.97 points.

Since the economic crisis in South East Asia in 1998, which hit Chile hard, stock prices steadily advanced.

"Compared to 1998, the situation in Chile is completely different. Prices on raw materials have gone up, copper prices stabilized at 3 US dollars per pound, infrastructure has changed, services have better coverage and interest rates are low," vice-president at Capital Markets IM Trust Vicente Beltrand said.

Chile's central bank announced on Thursday it would hold its interest rate at 5.25% for the third month in a row, in line with market belief that inflation is not a threat.

"The region's main currencies are up, emerging economies are strong, everything is favoring the peso," a trader said.

And the party is not about to end, as optimism dominates Chile's stock market for the near-term future.

"Looking towards the end of 2007 we expect Ipsa to reach 2,585 points, which is a 10% rise from today," Antonio Cruz from Santander Investment said.

By Morten Szygenda The Santiago Times