Jakarta Index Falls Again, Rupiah Flat

Jakarta (Antara) - The Jakarta share price index closed 0.87 percent lower on Friday to follow the regional trend. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) closed at 4,195.56 points or falling 36.42 pints from the previous day's closing with the index of 45 most liquid stock down 1.03 percent to 698.22. HD Capital's analyst Yuganur Wijanarko said on Friday the majority of markets in Asia suffered a decline on profit taking. "The regional situation was not encouraging, that domestic market players were prompted to sell shares which gained on Thursday," Yuganur said. He said market players would likely deal in short term transactions if the selling pressure continues next week, especailly as rupiah remains weak. Head of Research of Valbury Asia Securities, Alfiansyah, said the pressure on rupiah which has weakened to the level of 12,200 per US dollar becomes one of the factors prompting profit taking by investors. "Trade this weekend tended to be speculative. Stock investors in Indonesia are expected to find the market quiet during the few trading days next week with the Christmas," Alfiansyah said. There were 105,804 transactions in Friday's trading with about 4.52 billion shares traded valued at Rp4.46 trillion. Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.33 percent fall in index to 22,812.18 poi8nts with Nikkei-225 index up 0.07 percent and that of Straits Times gaining 0.79 percent to 3,094.48 points. Meanwhile rupiah remained unchanged in inter-bank transaction, to close at the level of 12,205 per US dollars on Friday. "The market players chose to wait and see the extent of the impact of the Fed's trimming its massive financial stimulus, Monex Investindo Futures' analyst Zulfirman Basir said. The Fed has announced it would trimmed its asset buying program by US$10 billion to US$75 billion a month starting January. He said the US dollar tends to gain over the majority of world's currencies to follow the signals of US economic recovery. "Much of the uncertainty in the US economic outlook has disappeared. The financial market players, therefore, chose to invest in the US dollar," he said. Financial market analyst from Bank Mandiri, Reny Eka Putri, said he hoped the Fed's decision to cut its bond buying program could give positive sentiment as the market players are no longer under pressure of uncertainties. (*)