Chile peso and stocks edge lower in sluggish trade

SANTIAGO, July 4 (Reuters) - Chile's peso edged lower in slow trade on Friday as crude oil's price remained near record highs, while stock indexes dipped into negative territory with trade volumes cut by the U.S. Independence day holiday.

The peso <CLP=CL> slipped 0.35 percent to close at 511.00/511.50 per dollar after closing at 509.20/509.70 on Thursday.

The dollar peaked at 525 pesos on Tuesday, its highest level in 10 months, but retreated in following sesssions.

"Private pension funds, among others, took advantage of the dollar's decline in recent days to buy. On top of that, the peso was affected by high oil prices," one trader said. "But trade amounts were unusually low because of the U.S. holiday."

The central bank on Friday continued with its daily dollar purchases of $50 million on the currency exchange as part of an $8 billion intervention begun in April to curb peso strength after the dollar slumped to 430 pesos in March.

The U.S. market holiday made for less volatility and sluggish volumes in stocks as well, with indexes trading nearly flat in mixed afternoon trade.

On the Santiago Stock Exchange, the all-market IGPA .IGPA slipped 0.07 percent to 13,491 points in afternoon trade, while the blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA inched 0.01 percent lower to 2,758 points.

Iron ore miner CAP CAP.SN fell 0.98 percent, while domestic department store chain La Polar LAP.SN led blue-chip percentage losses with a decline of 2.98 percent.

Losses were partially offset by a rise in supermarket operator D&S DIS.SN, up 2.85 percent and by department store chain Ripley RIP.SN, with a gain of 1.34 percent. (Reporting by Froilan Romero; Writing by Lisa Yulkowski; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)