Chile markets take a breather after election slide

By Froilan Romero and Fabian Cambero

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s markets steadied on Tuesday after sharp falls a day earlier in the wake of a resounding presidential election victory by leftist Gabriel Boric, who has pledged to shake up the country’s market-oriented economic model.

The peso currency rose some 0.85% to around 867 per dollar in early trading, while the benchmark stock index gained 2.45%. Both had fallen sharply on Monday with the peso hitting record lows versus the greenback.

Boric on Monday pledged to maintain an “orderly economy” and to move swiftly on naming his cabinet, a day after a sweeping electoral victory propelled him to become Chile’s youngest-ever democratically-elected president.

The former student protest leader, who leads a leftist coalition, firmly beat out far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast, who quickly conceded defeat, giving certainty to the result.

Boric’s rise – and the wider polarization of the vote – had rattled Chile’s markets and spooked mining firms concerned about his rhetoric to “bury” the country’s market-orientated economic model, push higher taxes and tighten environmental regulation.

The country’s markets are very attentive to the appointments Boric will make to his first Cabinet, after seeming to moderate his policy stance in recent weeks to attract centrist voters.

(Reporting by Froilán Romero and Fabián Andrés Cambero; Editing by Natalia Ramos and Nick Zieminski)