The integrated Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian stock exchanges will create a shared select-stock index to measure the Integrated Latin American Market’s performance, said Francis Stenning, the head of the Peruvian exchange, according to daily newspaper La Tercera.
The integrated market, also known as Mila, which will begin a test period on Nov. 22, is slated for completion by the end of January and will create Latin America’s largest stock exchange in terms of companies listed and second largest by market capitalization, at less than half the size of Brazil’s. It will have 563 listed companies, market capitalization of some $614 billion–compared to Brazil’s $1.5 trillion–and an estimated initial daily trading volume of about $300 million.
The Mila’s select-stock index could be operating by mid-2011 and will likely include the 35 or 40 most traded companies or largest companies in terms of capitalization, Stenning said, the daily reported.
The blue-chip index will include a “balanced” mix of Chile’s retailers, oil and gas companies in Colombia and miners in Peru, Leopoldo Forero, president of Colombian brokerage Afin, was quoted as saying by La Tercera.
So far this year, Peru’s broad General Index, the IGBVL, has risen by 43%, returns in Chile’s blue-chip IPSA index are up 39% and Colombia’s equivalent Colcap has grown 31%, according to figures provided by local investment bank Celfin Capital. (Anthony Esposito / Dow Jones Newswires)
