(Updates with closing prices)

By Alexia Vlahos

SANTIAGO, June 17 (Reuters) - Chile's leading share index closed sharply lower on Wednesday as investors continued to take profits after recent sharp gains, while the peso firmed to a near 9-month high, traders said.

The blue-chip IPSA index .IPSA closed 2.78 percent weaker at 3,106.01 points, its biggest one-day percentage fall since December, preliminary closing data showed, while the all-market IGPA index .IGPA fell 2.31 percent to 14,863.04 points.

"It was profit-taking more than anything else because the market had recovered very quickly (in recent months)," said Pamela Auszenker, head of research at the Bci brokerage.

The IPSA, which is now up 30.7 percent year-to-date, rose around 16 percent in May, when it posted its biggest gain in a single month since January 1994.

Last week the Chilean bourse hit its highest levels since December 2007.

Soquimich SQM_pb.SN, Chile's leading exporter of fertilizer and one of the world's biggest producers of iodine and lithium, fell 6.24 percent to 19,247 pesos, while shares in Steelmaker CAP CAP.SN fell 5.31 percent to 13,138 pesos.

Industrial conglomerate Copec COP.SN, the most heavily weighted company on the bourse, fell 3.16 percent to 6,482.70 pesos a share.