Stocks, rupiah tremble a little as student protests resume
Stocks, rupiah tremble a little as student protests resume
JAKARTA (JP): The rupiah dipped to 7,600 against the U.S.
dollar and stock prices lost 1.1 percent on Tuesday as students
resumed large-scale antigovernment demonstrations in the capital.
Currency traders said the rupiah's fall from Monday's close of
7,475 was also due to international market bullishness on the
greenback.
A chief dealer at a local private bank said the rupiah was
relatively stable for most of the day because players were
reluctant to take any new positions ahead of year-end.
"It was late buying by local operators that dragged the rupiah
a bit lower," he said.
The currency traded at the 7,550 level during the day before
dipping to 7,600 at the close.
The dealer said trading in the local unit was still thin and
most offshore players remained on the sidelines.
Any minor intervention by the central bank would effectively
boost the rupiah in such a market, the dealer added.
"Limited dollar sales by state banks kept the rupiah at the
7,550 level for almost the whole trading day before late buying
drove it down a bit," he said.
Some dealers said the market was actually unmoved by recent
localized riots but was more concerned by the possibility that
renewed student demonstrations might antagonize the unstable
situation.
President B.J. Habibie, speaking at the opening of the
national boy scouts' convention, said the stronger rupiah had
helped the economy but lamented that the gains were undermined by
recent unrest.
"In the last few weeks we have witnessed the strengthening of
the rupiah which gives hope for our economic recovery," Habibie
said. "But unfortunately this progress has been countered by
social and political unrest."
Mirroring the rupiah, share prices on the local market failed
to sustain their gains on Tuesday with the main price gauge
falling 1.1 percent.
Stockbrokers said massive profit taking on several blue-chip
stocks in late trading marked the end of a buying spree in the
past few days despite political and social instability at home.
"Massive profit taking has prevented the share prices from
continuing their rally," a broker with a local securities firm
said.
Sigma Batara Fadjar's head of research Fajar Limin Sutandi
believed profit taking was a logical consequence because "stock
prices in our market have been overbought".
Stockbrokers said that even though share prices declined,
trading activities remained aggressive, involving both foreign
and domestic investors.
"Trading activities were good with most counters active," said
Vonny Juwono, an institutional sales broker with Trimegah
Securindolestari.
She said that some foreign brokerage firms such as Credit
Lyonnais, ABN Amro, Jardine Fleming and Vickers Ballas Tamara,
which had placed huge funds in the local market in the past few
days, continued to enter the market on Tuesday.
"We still see some foreign investors putting more funds in the
local market."
But news of a student demonstration in late trading had forced
other foreign brokerage firms, like Merril Lynch Indonesia, ING
Barings and Trimegah Securindolestari, to cash in profits on the
gains they made the previous days, she said.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) Composite Index closed 4.90
points lower at 420.080 on a total turnover of 1.37 billion
shares changing hands valued at Rp 789.50 billion.
Gainers led losers by 80 to 52, with 76 shares unchanged.
"The buying program by domestic investors has prevented the
main price index from declining so sharply," Vonny said.
Most blue-chip stocks, after rallying in the past few days,
declined on Tuesday. Market leader telecommunications firm PT
Telkom slid Rp 100 to close at Rp 3,050 on 18 million shares
traded.
International call operator PT Indosat shed Rp 200 to Rp
11,600 on 11.60 million shares traded, pulp and paper firm PT
Tjiwi Kimia slid Rp 75 to Rp 1,775 on 20.34 million shares and
automotive firm PT Astra International dropped Rp 25 to Rp 1,150
on 19.24 million shares. (aly)