By Carla Mozee

Mexican stocks slipped Friday, losing grip of earlier advances as investors pushed past a mixed batch of local and U.S. economic data.

Mexico's IPC equity index fell 25 points to 32,578.05, with mining, home-building and communications stocks generating losses.

The IPC index, however, finished 0.6% higher on a weekly basis, the second weekly gain. Trading in Mexico will be closed Monday for a national holiday observing the birthday of former president of Mexico, Benito Juarez.

Among the biggest decliners on Friday were shares of copper miner Grupo Mexico, down 2.4% to 31.51 pesos ($2.51). Deutsche Bank late Thursday cut its rating on the company to hold from buy as the miner's net asset value spread narrows to 20%.

Deutsche Bank revised its price target on Grupo Mexico to 33 pesos, down from its previous target at 38 pesos. Analyst Jorge Beristain wrote in a note to clients that the revised estimates now factor in the consolidation of copper miner Asarco.

The losses on the index were capped by advances among retailers, manufacturers and financial firms. Among retailers, Wal-Mart de Mexico (WMMVY) rose 1.1%, Comerci gained 1.3%, Soriana picked up 1.3% and Grupo Famsa rose 0.9%.

Shares of cement maker Cemex (CX) were also higher, tacking on 0.4%, and Grupo Televisa shares (TV) rose 0.5%.

Investors in Mexican assets earlier Friday received a report from the United States -- Mexico's largest trading partner -- that showed retail sales unexpectedly rose in February. The Commerce Department said sales last month rose 0.3%, led by gains at electronic stores. Excluding a 0.2% decline in auto sales, retail sales increased 0.8% to $297.7 billion.

Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected February sales to be unchanged, and for sales excluding autos to rise 0.1%.

At the same time, the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index slipped in early March, to 72.5 in March from 73.6 in February. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were looking for the sentiment index to reach 74 in March.

Investors also assessed a report from Mexico's statistics institute, or Inegi, that the country's industrial production rose 3.6% in January from the year-ago period, below the forecast for growth of 5.5%, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts.

Industrial production fell 0.19% from December on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Industrial production has had three months of strong expansion, wrote Guilherme da Nóbrega, chief economist at Itau Unibanco, in a note to clients Friday.

"When we step back a little, the picture we get is one of solid growth. Actually, the pace of the last three months shows annualize industrial growth, in the order of 10%-11%," he wrote.

Among exchange-traded funds, iShares MSCI Mexico Investable index (EWW) closed up 0.1% and finished the week up 1.2%.

Elsewhere, Chile's IPSA rose 0.2% to 3,824.49. The index posted a 0.9% advance for the week. But the iShares MSCI Chile Investable Market index (ECH) fell 0.7% on a weekly basis.

Brazil's Bovespa fell 0.8% to 69,341 on Friday. For the week, the index rose 0.7%, but was unable to overcome the 70,000 threshold. The index tracking Latin America's biggest equity market hasn't finished above that level since early January.

The iShares MSCI Brazil index (EWZ) closed the week with a 0.8% decline.

Argentina's Merval rose 1.1% to 2,357.97 on Friday, and picked up 2.7% for the week.