Jakarta Index Gaining

Jakarta, Nov 12 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite share price index gained slightly on Tuesday ahead of the monthly meeting of Bank Indonesia (BI) leaders . The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) opened 7.55 points or 0.17 percent higher at 4,449.27 points with the index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.26 percent to 745.07 points. "The result of the meeting of the central bank leaders is expected to be welcomed by the market that the index would extend gain," chief researcher of Trust Securities, Reza Priyambada, said . Reza said the market players tended to chose to wait and see what the central bank would say about the prospects of the domestic economy and its benchmark interest rate (BI rate). He predicted that the BEI index would move around 4,420--4,436 points in Tuesday trading. A team of technical analysts of Mandiri Sekuritas said the BEI index would fluctuate and tended to gain . Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded an increase of 1.43 percent in index to 23,069.85 points with Nikkei-225 index up 1.30 percent to 14,269.84 points and that of Straits Times gaining 0.35 percent to 3,188.30 points. Meanwhile rupiah remained flat trading at the level of 11,555 per US dollar in interbank transaction on Tuesday`s opening trade. "The market players chose to wait for Bank Indonesia to announce its BI rate, Reza said. The US dollar is still on the rising trend after the announcement of an increase in US non-farm payrolls despite a slight increase in unemployment rate and a slip in consumer spending. He said financial market investors are awaiting a speech by the head of the Fed on US economy. "The speculation in the market is that the Fed would phase out its monetary stimulus earlier," he said. Monex Invesndo Futures` analyst Zulfirman Basir said BI is expected to maintain its BI rate at 7.25 percent. "Investors want BI issued a policy to curb inflation , improve trade balance and boost economic growth," he said. He said worries about the impact of earlier decision of the Fed to reduce stimulus would serve a negative sentiment for rupiah in the coming few months , but the rupiah outlook is still neutral.