Rupiah Value up against US Dollar

Jakarta (Antara) - The rupiah value rose against the US dollar in the first minutes of trade on Tuesday. The currency in inter-bank transactions traded at the level of 11,517 per dollar gaining from the earlier level of 11,524 per dollar. "Rupiah gained after being stagnant on domestic sentiment still strong enough to shore up the currency," said chief researcher of Monex Investindo Futures Ariston Tjendra here on Tuesday. Ariston said conducive condition of the country's current account and favorable political situation ahead of the presidential election kept rupiah in a positive area . "However, rupiah movements are still shadowed by external sentiments such as Ukraine crisis that discourage investors from aggressively collecting risk currencies including rupiah," he said. Market anticipation of US retail sales data to be released soon also held rupiah from further rise in rupiah value, he said. In addition, the US central bank has continued to trim its financial stimulus, he said, adding currently quantitative easing program of the Fed is US$45 billion a month. Meanwhile, the Jakartas composite index (JCI) rose to follow the trend in the global market. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) opened 25.82 points or 0.53 percent higher at the level of 4,938.82 points with the index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.59 percent to 836.31 points. "Asian markets including BEI opened stronger this morning on positive sentiment from the US market that chalked up a new record high ," Samuel Sekuritas' analyst Tiesha Narandha Putri said. Tiesha said the prices of majority commodities in the world rose notably nickel that would bring about positive sentiment to the mining stocks and the domestic market. "The JCI is expected to extend gain in the next days," she said. (*)