RUPIAH WEAKENS 28 POINTS AGAINST US DOLLAR

Jakarta, April 19 (ANTARA) - The rupiah weakened against the US dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market, here on Monday morning on regional bourse falls.

The Indonesian currency traded Rp9,033-Rp9,043 per US dollar, down 28 points from Rp9,005-Rp9,015 per US dollar as investors released the rupiah because regional bourses weakened, according to Edwin Sinaga.

The rupiah was also under pressure as a consequence of the Wall Street falls which had also caused the Tokyo and Hong Kong bourses to weaken at their opening sessions.

"We are optimistic that the markets' negative pressure will not continue, because a strong positive market sentiment is bolstering the rupiah to remain under the level of Rp9,000 pr US dollar," he said.

The rupiah depreciated because Bank Indonesia (BI), the country's central bank, was still intervening in the market to prevent the local unit from moving upward further, he said.

"BI does want to see the rupiah remain below Rp9,000 per US dollar as exporters are worried about the competitiveness of their products in overseas markets," he said.

He said he believed the local currency still had a chance to climb further as foreign fund inflows into the domestic market continued.

During the first quarter of this year the country a total of Rp 71.9 trillion worth if foreign funds had flowed into the country.