Rupiah strengthens against US dollar
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The rupiah strengthened against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market here on Thursday morning as investors hunted the local currency.
The Indonesian currency traded Rp9,500-Rp9,515 per US dollar, up 15 points from Rp9,515-Rp9,525 per US dollar at the market`s close a day earlier.
A main factor which encouraged investors to buy the local currency was a decision of Bank Indonesia (BI, the country`s central bank) to maintain its BI Rate at 6.5 percent, said Harry Kurniawan, a domestic money market observer.
The central bank unchanged its BI Rate because Indonesia`s economy was quite sound up to October 2009, he said.
Indonesia`s export performance was expected to improve following the reportedly global economic recovery and the world`s commodity price hike, he said.
He, therefore, believed that the rupiah still had a chance to further move upward.
"We are optimistic that investors will respond the domestic market, because Indonesia with the improved economic growth, could give higher profit to them," he said.
Another domestic money market observer, Fauzi Ichsan, believed that the rupiah would reach the level of Rp9,200 up to Rp9,300 per US dollar.
Meanwhile, the Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) at the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) got off to a weak start Thursday, weighed down by heavy sell-offs of small-cap shares.
The BEI index fell 0.44 percent or 10.295 points to 2,361.561 and the LQ-45 index went down 2,191 or 0.47 percent to 462.951.
Following Wall Street losses, investors sold small-cap shares, which prompted the BEI index to plunge, according to Alfiansyah, a stock broker of PT Sinarmas Securities.
Among top losers were Gudang Garam shares lost Rp200 to Rp15.400, ITMG shares dropped Rp200 to Rp23,400, Astra Internasional shares fell Rp100 to Rp21,400, BUMI shares declined Rp100 to Rp2,375, Astra Agro Lestari shares weakened Rp100 to Rp21.400 and Myora shares plunged Rp50 to Rp3,375 per share.(*)
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PubDate: 11/05/09 16:15
