RUPIAH GAINS 85 POINTS EARLY FRIDAY

Jakarta, April 24 (ANTARA) - The rupiah strengthened against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market here early Friday, on the easing of domestic political tensions and profit taking by investors who released their US dollars.

The Indonesian currency traded at Rp10,785/10,790 per US dollar, up 85 points from Rp10,870/10,880 per US dollar at the market's close a day earlier.
The local unit rose as the political tensions following the breakup between the Golkar Party and the Democratic Party diminished, Edwin Sinaga, a money market analyst, said here on Friday.
The breakup of the two parties' coalition was feared to have s negative effect on the administration despite the sound economic growth, he said.
Sinaga said the political issue was a market dynamism and a normal thing in the government, especially for political observers in daily life.
Therefore, the political issue did not stay long, he said.
Investors took profit from the US dollar which significantly rose earlier, and it helped strengthen the rupiah back, he said.
Another factor which boosted the Indonesian currency was the national economy which still grew better than other Asian countries, he said.
He said the rupiah would again approach the level of Rp10,700 per US dollar and might even lower than that as the market positive sentiment was still getting bigger.
Bank Indonesia (BI)'s intervention into the domestic money market to meet the the US greenback demands by state enterprises also gave positive support to the rupiah, he said.
Sinaga was optimistic that the local currency could advance further to the level of Rp10,500 if there was no obstacle.
The rupiah was relatively strong as investors still considered Indonesia as a safe place to invest their funds, he said.
Last Thursday morning (April 23), the Indonesian currency weakened 10 points and traded at Rp10,890/11,900 per US dollar.