Rupiah Extends Loses

Jakarta, Aug 22 (Antara) - The value of the Indonesian currency rupiah fell again losing more value in the opening trade on Thursday morning. External pressure was stronger with expectation that the US central bank would finally cut its financial stimulus, analysts said. Rupiah lost 55 points, changing hands at 11,000 per US dollar from 10,945 in inter-bank transaction. The rupiah value could still fall to as low as 11,200 per dollar with the US currency continuing to gain, Samuel Sekuritas` economist Lana Soelistianingsih predicted . The US dollar is expected to gain more strength with the Fed indicating it plan to reduce purchases of bonds this year, Lana said here on Thursday. The Fed is awaiting only confirmation about improvement of the US economic data especially labor market in the second half of the year, she said. Harry Su of PT Bahana Securities said the government could soften the pressure on rupiah if the country succeeded in reducing its current account deficit. The country`s current account deficit widened to US$9.8 billion in the second quarter from US$5.8 billion in the previous quarter this year. Companies having debts in US dollar would be hit the hardest, but exporters would gain with the falling value of rupiah. The Indonesian Textile Association has said textile and garment exporters gained from the rupiah fall. Meanwhile the Jakarta index also fell on Thursday after a healthy gain in the previous day. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) opened 1.21 percent lower at 4,167.45 points on negative regional sentiment. The index of 45 mots liquid stocks also lost 12.97 points or 1.86 percent to 683.18 points. "Selling action was recorded in the majority of Asian markets on slowdown still hitting the economies in Asia Pacific," Trust Securities` chief researcher Reza Priyambada said. The move to be taken by The Fed is also still the main concern of the market players, Reza said. The market players also chose to wait and see ahead of the meeting this week of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), he said. The market players in the US market also seem to restrain from taking any action resulting in the fall of the majority of indexes, he added. He predicted the BEI index would hover around 4,132 - 4,250 points on Thursday. Regional markets such as Hang Seng fell 0.34 percent in index to the level of 21,743.66 points with Nikkei-225 index down 0.50 points to 13,356.63 points and that of Straits Times sinking 1.32 percent to 3,067.24 points.