Rupiah Up

Jakarta, April 22 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite index (JCI) slipped 2.42 points at the open on Tuesday on minimum positive sentiment in the market. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange fell 0.05 percent to 4,889.87 points with index of 45 most liquid stock down 0.08 percent to 828.72 points. Sinarmas Sekuritas` analyst Christandi Rheza Mihardja said the JCI movements are still influenced by domestic political developments ahead of the presidential election in July. The market players are also waiting for the impact of plan to raise the electric tariff on May 1, 2014. Regional markets such as Hang Seng posted a 0.14 percent increase in index to 22,792.35 points with Nikkei index up 0.40 percent to 14,570.66 and that of Straits Times gaining 0.24 percent to 3,263.79 points. Meanwhile, the value of the country`s currency rupiah rose against the US dollar trading at the level of 11,400 per dollar from the level of 11,444 earlier. Chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said the auction of a state share bond with a sales target of Rp1.5 trillion is expected to further shore up rupiah. "The rupiah rise, however, is curbed by political uncertainty ahead of the presidential election," Reza said. In addition rupiah is still vulnerable with the strengthening of the US dollar to follow improvement of the US economy, and the market players responded negatively to increase in Japan`s imports that weakened the yen. "Falling yen could result in the US dollar rising higher over Asian currencies including rupiah," he said.