Jakarta Index Down, Rupiah Weakening

Jakarta, Dec 11 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite share price index fell slightly by 0.04 percent in the morning trade on Wednesday to follow the regional trend. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange opened 1.74 points lower at 4,273.94 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks down 0.06 percent to 713.33 points. "Asian markets being in negative area was one of the factors bringing about negative sentiments to the BEI," Trust Securities` analyst Yusuf Nugraha said . However, the pressure on the BEI index was not very strong as domestic big capitalization shares still have the potential to gain, Yusuf said. "The upward trend is still potential though limited as the market players are still awaiting the results of Thursday`s meeting of Bank Indonesia board of governor," he said. He predicted that BEI index would hover around 4,200--4,300 points on Wednesday Head of Research of Valbury Asia Securities, Alfiansyah said the chance of is still open for BEI index to continue climbing with the momentum of the second economic policy to follow the previous one. "Investors see that the the steps showed the government is serious in handling the domestic problem," Alfiansyah said. Regional markets such as Hang Seng fell 0.70 percent in index to 23,578.78 units with Nikkei-225 index down 0.55 percent to 15,527.82 and that of Straits Times diving 0.21 percent to 3,075.66 points. Meanwhile, in inter-bank transaction in the opening trade on Wednesday rupiah weakened 93 points against the US dollar trading at the level of 12,013 per dollar as against 11,920 earlier. "Rupiah took a dive ahead of the meeting of Bank Indonesia board of governors this week," chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said. Reza said investors are worried about the seriousness of the central bank in warding off the impact of negative global sentiment and in dealing with the domestic economic slowdown and deficit in balance of trade. He said US employment data released earlier boosted the US dollar climbing over the majority of the world currencies including rupiah. Financial market analyst of Bank Mandiri Rully Arya Wisnubroto said rupiah was still moving levelly with the market players awaiting the decision of the Fed on its financial stimulus. He predicted the US central bank would delay slashing its bond buying program until next year as the US unemployment rate could not yet pressed down to the set target. "The Fed`s unemployment rate target was set at 6.5 percent, which is still below the latest record of 7 percent," he said. He predicted the rupiah would move around 11,600--12,100 per dollar this week.