Jakarta Index Up

Jakarta, Feb 18 (Antara) - The Jakarta composite index rose slightly by 0.08 percent in the opening trade on Tuesday on positive domestic sentiment. The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange rose 3.61 points or 0.08 percent to 4,558.98 points. The index of 45 most liquid stocks also rose , up 2.31 points or 0.30 percent to 769.03 points. Encouraging financial performance of listed companies contributed to the slight increase in the BEI index, analysts said. Chief researcher of Valbury Asia Securities, Alfiansyah, said a number of construction companies and banks recorded good financial performance in 2013 as shown in their financial reports published earlier. The good performance contributed to keeping the BEI index in positive area, he said. "The two sectors are expected to continue to boost the BEI index in today`s trading," he said. In addition, externally global sentiment is still positive, he added. Samuel Sekuritas` analyst Yualdo Yudoprawiro, predicted the BEI index would tend to decline with the falling value of rupiah against the US dollar and potential profit taking. "Profit taking would likely with significant increase in the prices of a number of stocks on Monday such as such bank, construction, property and cement stocks," he added. Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.26 percent decline in index to 22,476.92 points with Nikkei index up 1 percent to 14,540.34 points and that of Straits Times down 0.12 percent to 3,066.83 points . Meanwhile rupiah lost some of its value against the US dollar trading at the level of 11,710 per dollar from 11,684 per dollar earlier.