INDONESIAN STOCKS OPEN SLIGHTLY LOWER ON WALL STREET LOSSES

Jakarta, Sept. 30 (ANTARA) - The Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) at the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) got off to a weak start here early Wednesday on Wall Street losses.

The BEI index weakened 6.920 points or 0.28 percent to 2,436.276 points, and the LQ-45 index dropped 1.474 points or 0.31 percent to 476.063 points.

Investors sold their shares due to the negative impact of Wall Street losses, which were followed by regional bourse losses, Harry Kurniawan, a capital market observer, said here on Wednesday.

He believed that the BEI index would continue to weaken later in the day.

The Wall Street index dropped after the data index on US consumers' confidence tended to weaken, he said.

When investors noticed these developments, they sold off their shares causing the Wall Street index to fall, he said.

However, he predicted that the depreciation of the Indonesian stocks would not last long as the US government was planning to boost further its economy by providing a new stimulus package.

The BEI index came under pressure also because of the strengthening of the US dollar in regional markets, he said.

But he was confident that the Indonesian stocks still had a chance to strengthen again as foreign investors tended to come to the domestic stock market to buy more shares, he said.

The BEI index was currently still above the level of 2,400 points and in the future it might reach the level of 2,500 points, he said.