Jakarta Index Lower, Rupiah Down

Jakarta, Oct 9 (Antara) - Indonesia`s benchmark stock index fell slightly in the opening trade on Wednesday on profit taking after gain on Tuesday. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) opened 0.27 percent lower at 4,420.64 with index of 45 most liquid stocks down 0.41 percent to 740.22 points. "The BEI index moved level this morning but tended to decline to follow the regional trend and profit taking," Samuel Sekuritas` analyst Benedictus Agung said. Benedictus said the market players are still worried by a standoff over US debt ceiling and partial government shutdown. In addition, the International Monetary Fund revising down its prediction of world economic growth to 2.9 percent for 2013 added to negative sentiment in the market. Similarly, Panin Sekuritas` analyst Purwoko Sartono said deadlock in negotiation over US government proposal to increase its borrowing limit is still shadowing the BEI index movements. "The failure to reach a compromise caused a delay in the announcement of a number of US economic data. Data delayed from last week include labor and unemployment data . This week`s data that would likely be delayed also include retail sales and trade balance," he said. Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.67 percent fall in index to 23,023.36 points with Nikkei-225 index up 0.16 percent to 13,916.96 points and that of Straits Times gaining 0.23 percent to 3,154.29 points. Meanwhile, the national currency rupiah fell in value in the first minute of trading on Wednesday because of US debt ceiling worry. Rupiah traded the level of 11,195 per US dollar in interbank transactions weakening from the previous level of 11,174. "External factors prevented an upward movement of the BEI index driven by positive domestic sentiment. However, statement by Bank Indonesia that ti would be ready step if the US government failed to increase its debt ceiling, helped the market to relax," Monex Investindo Futures` analyst Zulfirman Basir said. Basir said so far rupiah has been relatively stable indicating that the market players are convinced that Bank Indonesia is quite effective in protecting rupiah. Money market analyst Rully Arya Wisnubroto from Bank Mandiri said the decision of Bank Indonesia to maintain its benchmark interest rate(BI rate) at the level of 7.25 percent remained a source of positive sentiment for rupiah . "The BI rate is in line with the market expectation," Rully said predicting the currency would hover around 11,150--11,500 per dollar in Wednesday trading.