Jakarta Index Opens Higher On Thursday

Jakarta, Jan 23 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite index opened 0.40 percent higher on Thursday on regional sentiment with Asian markets tending to gain. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) rose 17.99 points to 4,495.48 points in the opening trade with the index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.61 percent to 762.01 points. "The BEI index grew again in line with the increase in EIDO in last night trading," Samuel Sekuritas` analyst Adrianus Bias said. EIDO are listed companies in the U.S. market in which there are Indonesian shares. In addition Asian markets which tend to gain ahead of the announcement of Chinese manufacturing index, gave positive sentiment to the domestic market, Adrianus said. The market players, however, need to be cautious with the rupiah depreciation and the increase in the yield of state bonds in the past two days, he said. PT Anugerah Sekurindo Indah`s analyst Bertoni Rio said optimism expressed by the Indonesian Monetary Fund (IMF)about the global economic prospects had formed a positive opinion in the financial market. "IMF has revised its forecast of global economic growth to 3.7 percent or an increase of 0.1 percent," he said. Positive data were also recorded by a number of listed companies contributing to the increase in the BEI index. Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 1.14 percent fall in index to 22,819.85 points with Nikkei index up 0.68 percent to 15,928.03 points and that of Straits Times down 0.31 percent to 3,124.02 points.