Jakarta Index Up Slightly

Jakarta, April 12 (Antara) - The Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) opened trade on Friday morning with the composite price index up slightly on buying action by market players. The BEI index rose 1.61 points or 0.03 percent to 4,925.87 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks gaining 0.05 percent to 832.57 points. "Investors again took a buying position this weekend lifting the index," HD Capital analyst Yuganur Wijanarko said here on Friday. Yuganur said technically BEI index was over the psychological level of 4,900 points bringing about expectation that the BERI index would extend rally to reach as high as 4,950-4,985 points. Panin Sekuritas` analyst Purwoko Sartono said investors welcome the decision on Thursday of Bank Indonesia maintaining its benchmark interest rate at 5.75 percent. "The central bank also is optimistic the inflationary pressure would dye away. Today we predict the BEI index would hover around 4,904-4,943 points," he said. Regional markets Hang Seng recorded a 0.17 percent increase in index to 22,139.84 points, Nikkei-225 suffered 0.49 percent fall to 13,482.95 points and Straits Times gained 0.11 percent to 3,312.32 points.