BEI INDEX DOWN SLIGHTLY ON PROFIT TAKING MOVES

Jakarta, Aug. 26 (ANTARA) - The Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) at the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) here on Wednesday morning opened slightly lower on profit taking moves.

The BEI index went down 0.07 percent or 0.948 points to 2,381.467 and the LQ-45 index fell 0.,13 percent or 0.561 points to 464.559.

The Jakarta stocks were under pressure as investors released their shares to take profits after rallies over the past two days, Alfiansyah, a stock exchange broker of PT Sinarmas Securities, said.

Investors tended to ignored external positive issues such as Wall Street gains following the issuance of the US data indicating some improvement in the property sector.

Alfiansyah predicted that the BEI index losses would not be significant and the BEI index still had a big chance to strengthen again.

He, however, believed that it would be difficult for the BEI index to reach the level of 2,400 points, which is the psychological level of the domestic stocks, due to the domestic market's volatility.

Investors still waited for the reaction of banks which were expected to lower their credit interest rate, he said. Earlier, 14 banks have expressed their commitment to cutting their interest rates.

Meanwhile, the rupiah was stable against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market here on Wednesday morning.

The Indonesian currency traded at Rp9,995-Rp10,015 per US dollar.