Stock Watch: El Sitio Launches Shopping Channel

Shares of online Latin American network El Sitio (Nasdaq: LCT), which just went public on December 15th, gained 2-57/64 to 36-7/8 in early trading today, one day after the company announced that it has launched a shopping channel at shopping.elsitio.com. The new shopping area offers a search engine and directory for the various e-commerce businesses that serve El Sitio's users. It also features a help center that explains the basics of e-commerce for new online shoppers. Users will be able to review and rank online stores.

Shares of El Sitio, which attracted more than 1.6 million unique users in September, have climbed more than 10 points in the last three trading sessions. While Starmedia is the leader in Latin America, there is certainly room for more than one player in this emerging market. El Sitio is actively expanding its offerings, which already includes auctions and most of the features associated with portal sites, such as a search engine, free-e-mail and chat rooms. This stock is one to keep an eye on.