Pinera Assumes Presidency in Chile Amidst new Earthquake; Chilean Stocks To Benefit

Presidents of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador look scared at the ceiling of Chilean congress

Evo Morales went to Chile stating that he wanted to experience earthquakes and tremors. He got his wish very well granted.

Sebastian Pinera assumed the presidency of Chile today exactly when a new earthquake hit the country quite close Santiago. The new quake which measured 7.2 and was followed by two aftershocks in the 6 range, shook the leaders of many nations who were at the Chilean congress for the ceremony. CNN link.

According to newspaper El Mercurio, the nerves also reached the presidents of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez, of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, of Bolivia, Evo Morales, of Peru, Alan García, and Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, who even tried to leave the room. "They, like Prince Felipe de Borbon, looked at the ceiling with his mouth open trying to figure if it would fall on their heads."

El Mercurio also shows before and after pictures of the earthquake that happened on February 27. This is Dichato, before and after (please click to enlarge):

Much needed donations to the 0.5M left homeless can be made though Google's Help Chile link

STOCKS

Chilean stocks are expected to greatly benefit from all the reconstruction effort, estimated at around $30B (before today's earthquakes). Those that might suffer in the short term or of these earthquakes continue are those using the damaged ports.

We track all Chilean ADRs that trade in New York as part of our Tracking Live site of Latin American stocks.

These are the Chilean ADRs daily and performance since 2009:



The top performer is PVD, a pension fund administrator, at +249%. A great company is SQM, producer of chemicals, fertilizers, and with the world's largest reserves of Lithium, a company about which I have written several times before.

SQM has dropped significantly since its high in January:

Note: entering the symbols in the Technical Trend Analysis Tool, (powered by INO).

Disclaimer: The author does not own any of the stocks mentioned.