Jakarta Index Opens Higher

Jakarta, March 26 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite index opened 0.47 percent higher in the early trade on Wednesday to follow the regional trend, analysts said. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) rose 22.02 points to 4,725.1 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.64 percent to 793.08 points. "Improvement of the US market last night boosted the indexes of Asian markets including BEI index this morning," Head of Research of Valbury Asia Securities Alfiansyah said . Despite the decline in the US manufacturing data, the US economy was in the trend of recovery from the effect of bad weather earlier this year, he said. "Positive global index opened an opportunity for the BEI index to extend gain today," he said. PT Asjaya Indosurya Securities` analyst, William Surya wijaya, said foreign capital is expected to continue to flow into the country`s share market contributing to BEI index increase. He said substantial amount of foreign investment fund is expected to enter the country`s market this year reflecting foreign confidence in the country`s economy. Based on BEI data, foreign net buy reached Rp23.228 trillion on March 25. Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.99 percent increase in index to 21,948.28 points with Nikkei index up 0.35 percent to 14,473.64 points and that of Straits Times gaining 0.83 percent to 3,130.15 points.