RUPIAH GAINS 40 POINTS EARLY WEDNESDAY

Jakarta, Feb. 25 (ANTARA) - The rupiah strengthened against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market early Wednesday as market players released their greenback and bought the local currency.
"The rupiah purchases were triggered by the government's decision to increase the stimulus package funds to Rp73.3 trillion from Rp71.3 trillion earlier, in order to anticipate the global financial crisis," Farial Anwar, a money market observer, said here on Wednesday.
The Indonesian currency traded at Rp11,950/11,975 per US dollar, up 45 points from p11,995/12,050 in the market's close a day earlier.
The rupiah advanced also because Bank Indonesia (BI) stayed in the money market to protect the currency from further volatility, he said.
"We are optimistic that BI (the central bank) will continue to protect (the local currency), by monitoring the movement of the two currencies (the rupiah and the US dollar) and foreign currency trading by foreign banks," he said.
The rupiah gained also because of a report that Indonesia would get additional foreign exchange reserve funds under an agreement reached in the recent ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) Meeting.
According to the Action Plan to Restore Economic and Financial Stability of the Asian Region agreed by ASEAN+3 finance ministers in their meeting in Phuket, Thailand on Sunday (Feb. 22), 120 billion US dollars, instead of 80 billion US dollars as initially proposed, will be injected into the reserve pool.
"We are optimistic that there is still positive sentiment in the market and the rupiah will again gain in the afternoon," Anwar said.