The 10.3% year-to-date decline for the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Copper Subindex Total Return ETN (NYSEArca: JJC) nearly matches ECH’s 2014 loss. Slack global copper demand has hampered ECH and the Chilean economy this year.
“Having receded 7.1 percentage points from its peak three and a half years ago to a 2.1 percent annual rate of advance in the second-quarter of 2014, Chilean real GDP growth is unlikely to dip into recession, but will struggle to regain upside momentum through year-end and much of 2015,” said S&P Capital IQ.
Making the near-term outlook for ECH and Chilean stocks all the more murky are valuations that high relative to other accessible Latin American markets.
“From an absolute valuation perspective, the Santiago stock exchange’s positive-adjusted, one-year forward price-earnings multiple (p/e) of 17.8x in US dollar terms is comparatively expensive when measured against that of Brazil (11.1x), Argentina (12.2x), Peru (13.9x) and Colombia (14.9x),” said S&P Capital IQ.
Mexico is the only Latin American market with a U.S.-listed ETF that Chile trades at a discount to. However, investors have added just $54 million to ECH this compared to $392.5 million for the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWW).
iShares MSCI Chile Capped ETF
