Santiago, March 1, 2026, 06:19 GMT-3 — Market closed.
Chile’s benchmark S&P CLX IPSA index on the Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago ended Friday at 10,877.74 points, down 1.56%.
The IPSA finished February down 4.8%, its worst monthly performance since October 2023, as a rebalance of MSCI indexes drove heavy end-of-month repositioning, Diario Financiero reported. MSCI is an index provider; its quarterly changes can force passive funds to buy and sell at the close.
Monday’s open will help answer the immediate question: did the selling fade once the index-driven orders cleared, or did the month-end drop turn into something more directional.
Retailers and banks took much of the heat in Friday’s session. Cencosud fell 5.95%, while Cencosud Shopping slid 5.24% and Itaú dropped 4.57%; shipping firm Vapores rose 2.82% and conglomerate Quiñenco gained 2.33%, according to Emol.
Outside equities, traders are still watching two familiar levers: copper and the peso. The dollar was around 873.71 pesos on Friday, up 0.93% on the session, while copper was near $6.00 a pound, up about 1% on the day.
The next local macro signpost lands early. Chile’s central bank is due to publish the January reading of IMACEC on Monday; IMACEC is a monthly economic activity index whose annual change is used as a proxy for GDP momentum.
On the company side, lithium and fertilizer producer SQM reported 2025 net income of $588.1 million on revenue of $4.58 billion, and flagged strong lithium demand in the fourth quarter. Chief Executive Ricardo Ramos said the firm estimates “the lithium market could grow by approximately 25% this year,” and the company scheduled a results call for Monday at noon Chile time. GlobeNewswire
That leaves a slightly awkward mix for index watchers: domestic cyclicals have been sliding, but Chile’s big commodity-linked names can still tug the benchmark around if copper or lithium sentiment shifts.
But the downside case is not hard to sketch. A weaker-than-expected activity print, another sharp move in the peso, or a renewed global risk-off swing could keep pressure on banks and retailers, which did much of the heavy lifting on the way down in late February.
The Santiago exchange reopens Monday with continuous trading from 09:30 to 16:00 local time, including a closing auction in the final minutes — a mechanism that can amplify price moves when large orders hit at once.
The week’s hard stop comes Friday, when Chile’s statistics agency is scheduled to publish February consumer prices at 08:00 local time, and U.S. payrolls for February are due at 08:30 a.m. ET — releases that can reset rate expectations and spill quickly into emerging-market positioning.
