RUPIAH TUMBLES AGAINST US DOLLAR EARLY WEDNESDAY

Jakarta, Aug. 12 (ANTARA) - The rupiah tumbled against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market here on Wednesday morning on profit taking moves.

The Indonesian currency traded at Rp9,950-Rp9,965 per US dollar, down 40 points from Rp9,910-Rp9,920 per US dollar at the market's close a day earlier.

Investors sold their shares and bought the US greenback following the plunge in regional and global bourses, Edwin Sinaga, a domestic money market observer, said.

However, he believed that the rupiah would not plunge to the level of Rp10,000 per US dollar as Bank Indonesia (BI, the country's central bank), would interfere into the money market to prevent the local until from slumping down further.

He expressed optimism that the central bank would enter the market to release dollars from its reserve to mitigate market pressure on the rupiah.

The rupiah would still have a chance to move upward thanks to Indonesia's macro-economic fundamentals which had improved, and the security authorities' success in investigating the bomb blasts which hit two star-rated hotels in Jakarta last July.

The local currency would strengthen again if the world market improved and gave positive sentiment to the Indonesian capital market, he said.