EMERGING MARKETS-Softer dollar boosts Latam currencies, focus on China protests

* China's anti-lockdown protests shake stocks and oil * Dollar reverses early gains and slips * Chile's Escondida mine workers accept BHP's offer and will not strike * Credit default ratio in Brazil hits highest in about 4 years By Bansari Mayur Kamdar Nov 28 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies rose on Monday versus a softer dollar as investors focused on rare protests in China, while stocks in the commodity-heavy region tumbled, tracking the sell-off in their global and emerging market peers over global growth concerns. Protests against strict COVID-19 curbs in the world's second-largest economy sparked a sell-off in global markets with the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 falling 0.4% after the open, while emerging market stocks declined 0.9%. The U.S. dollar index reversed early gains and fell 0.5% against a basket of major currencies. MSCI's index of Latin American currencies slipped 0.1% against the dollar and the regional stocks index edged 0.2% down, still outperforming their emerging market peers. "The big thing that's going on in the markets today is that people are struggling to think about, first of all, what's happening in China with these protests, how the government is going to respond and how that's going to feed into global trade and global growth," said Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights. "But, compared to other markets, for example oil that has fallen quite sizably, the currency markets are still sort of looking for a direction." The Brazilian real added 0.6% against the dollar, leading gains among regional currencies. A broad measure of Brazilian consumer and business credit default ratios rose in October to its highest level in almost four years, central bank data showed, amid high borrowing costs and aggressive monetary tightening. Mexico's peso was flat as weakness in oil prices weighed on the oil producer. Crude prices fell on concern over fuel demand following the street protests in China, the world's biggest crude importer. In oil producer Colombia, its peso rose 0.4% against the dollar. Currencies of copper producers Chile and Peru gained 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively, against the dollar. Workers at Chile's Escondida mine accepted a new offer from BHP and will not move forward with a strike that had been planned for Monday and Wednesday, their union said Monday. Chevron Corp on Saturday received a U.S. license allowing the second-largest U.S. oil company to expand its production in Venezuela and bring the South American country's crude oil to the United States. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 0246 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 932.15 -0.94 MSCI LatAm 2156.03 -0.16 Brazil Bovespa 108811.19 -0.15 Mexico IPC 0.00 0 Chile IPSA 5247.43 -0.04 Argentina MerVal 163214.97 -0.307 Colombia COLCAP 1258.96 -0.58 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3745 0.59 Mexico peso 19.3294 0.00 Chile peso 914.1 0.83 Colombia peso 4834.71 0.56 Peru sol 3.8595 -0.36 Argentina peso (interbank) 166.6200 -0.62 Argentina peso (parallel) 314 1.91 (Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)