SSE - Santiago Stock Exchange

Founded in 1893 the Santiago Stock Exchange (SSE) – or Bolsa de Comercio de Santiago as it is known locally – is the dominant stock exchange for Chile. The founding of the SSE was a vitally important step towards injecting life into the national economy. When it was founded there were already 329 Incorporated Companies – many of which were in the mining industry. The SSE has since gone through strong and weak phases and has grown considerably with regards to the number of companies involved and the amount of business done through the SSE. The SSE is currently located at La Bolsa 64, Santiago, Chile and trading is done Monday through to Friday.

The SSE currently trades mainly stocks, stock options, bonds, investment funds and gold and silver coins. Stock market indices are published in three publications – IGPA, the IPSA and the Intra-10. The IGPA measures price variations of the majority of the SSE’s listed stocks and the index is revised annually. The IPSA concentrates on the 40 most heavily traded stocks and is revised quarterly and the Intra-10 focuses on the 10 main Chilean stocks which are listed on foreign markets through ADRs. The country’s economy is very market-orientated and business generally engage in a high level of foreign trade. There have been staggering improvements in the country’s economic growth since the early 1990s when the country adopted new governmental policies. Despite a small period of financial crises, Chile’s economy has seen good growth rates in recent years. As of 2006, Chile had the highest nominal GDP per capital in Latin America.

Their biggest export is and always has been that of copper though recent years has seen the private sector producing more copper than the state-owned firm CODELCO. Non-mineral exports include forestry and wood products, processed food, fresh fruit, seafood and fish meal. The majority of foreign trade takes place with countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America. Among the things imported are consumer goods, motor vehicles, fuels, electrical machinery, food, chemicals and heavy industrial machinery. Examples of companies found on the SSE are Axxion, Bicecorp, Chilectra, Elecmetal and Sintex.

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