Chile’s Peso Firms as Stocks Hit New Highs, Defying Global Jitters

Key Points

• The Chilean peso stayed firm near 886 per $1 as official FX auctions and strong copper helped cap the dollar.
• Santiago’s IPSA jumped to a record 11,254, driven by rate-sensitive names and a renewed bid for Chile risk.
• Winners were led by PARAUCO and SQM-B, while the biggest laggards included TSLACL and VCL.

Chile opened Wednesday with a rare combination: a stronger peso and a stock market pushing deeper into record territory, even as global investors remained uneasy about U.S. politics, oil-price shocks, and the direction of the Federal Reserve.

USD/CLP traded around the mid-886 area in early dealing after dipping to roughly 885 earlier in the week, a move Chile’s Diario Financiero described as the strongest level in about two years.

Traders pointed to Chile’s Finance Ministry program to sell up to $300 million per week in the FX market through March, a clear source of supply that can dampen dollar spikes when liquidity is thin.

Copper near $6.06 per pound added support for the peso by improving Chile’s external backdrop. The bigger spectacle was equities. The S&P IPSA surged 1.7% on Tuesday to 11,254.48, with a late closing auction amplifying gains.

“More money is coming in from retail investors through mutual funds, and we’ve also seen more foreign flows,” Aldo Morales, an equity research manager at BICE Inversiones, told Diario Financiero, arguing that the rally has broadened beyond the pension-fund-driven market of recent years.

Rate expectations helped. After U.S. December inflation landed broadly in line—2.7% headline and a slightly softer 2.6% core—local swaps were read as pricing meaningful odds of another Chilean central bank cut as soon as March.

Top five IPSA gainers on the day were DUNCANFOX (+32.16%), PUCOBRE (+26.73%), ECH (+14.23%), GDXCL (+13.33%), and VNM (+10.73%).

The top five decliners were TSLACL (-11.46%), VCL (-8.06%), IANSA (-5.08%), MARINSA (-3.62%), and AMZNCL (-2.68%). Heavy trading clustered in Latam Airlines, SQM-B, Cencosud, Banco de Chile, and Falabella.

Technically, USD/CLP still looks heavy on daily and 4-hour charts, while the IPSA’s momentum is strong—but increasingly stretched.

This is part of The Rio Times’ daily coverage of Chilean markets and Latin American financial news.

For context on regional markets, see Brazil’s Ibovespa for the same session.

Also tracking regional peers: Colombia’s COLCAP closed the same session.

Related coverage: Brazil’s Morning Call | Chile’s Copper Bet For 2026: High Prices, Flat Output, And A