Rupiah plunges in early trade on dollar buying by local traders
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Rupiah at the Jakarta interbank spot market on Monday morning plunged to Rp9,350 against US dollar as market agents bought the US currency on the domestic money market.
The Indonesian unit dropped by 65 points to Rp9,345/9,350 against US dollar compared to Rp9,280/9,300 to the greenback at the closing session last week.
Retail Banking Director of PT Bank Mega Tbk (publicly listed), Kostaman Thayib, said here the domestic money market was still under pressure due to the fluctuating global money market.
The fluctuation triggered market agents to buy US dollar as they were more confident in dollar to rupiah, he said.
According to Kostaman, the market is actually still waiting for follow-up effects of the US subprime mortgage which has pressured the Wall Street due to the crisis in the US housing credits.
A number of analysts are still difficult to predict whether or not the market fluctuation would continue after several central banks spent funds in anticipation of such a condition, he said.
Rupiah would likely continue to slump to Rp9,400 per US dollar but Bank Indonesia (the central bank) might enter the market to anticipate strong pressures against rupiah.
"We are optimistic that the central bank will keep monitoring the movement as US dollar is weakening against Japanese yen on the global market," he said.
Actually, rupiah still has the opportunity to strengthen but worries about the fluctuation of the global money market still remain, he said, adding that rupiah was expected to be bullish in the afternoon. (*)
The Indonesian unit dropped by 65 points to Rp9,345/9,350 against US dollar compared to Rp9,280/9,300 to the greenback at the closing session last week.
Retail Banking Director of PT Bank Mega Tbk (publicly listed), Kostaman Thayib, said here the domestic money market was still under pressure due to the fluctuating global money market.
The fluctuation triggered market agents to buy US dollar as they were more confident in dollar to rupiah, he said.
According to Kostaman, the market is actually still waiting for follow-up effects of the US subprime mortgage which has pressured the Wall Street due to the crisis in the US housing credits.
A number of analysts are still difficult to predict whether or not the market fluctuation would continue after several central banks spent funds in anticipation of such a condition, he said.
Rupiah would likely continue to slump to Rp9,400 per US dollar but Bank Indonesia (the central bank) might enter the market to anticipate strong pressures against rupiah.
"We are optimistic that the central bank will keep monitoring the movement as US dollar is weakening against Japanese yen on the global market," he said.
Actually, rupiah still has the opportunity to strengthen but worries about the fluctuation of the global money market still remain, he said, adding that rupiah was expected to be bullish in the afternoon. (*)