Jakarta. Indonesian stocks kept their impressive win streak alive on Wednesday, closing in record territory again thanks to a 13-point rally in the last five minutes of trading to offset sporadic profit-taking.
The Jakarta Composite Index rose 11.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,603.40, its ninth-straight record close. Volume was heavy, with 9.6 billion shares worth Rp 8.83 trillion ($989 million) traded.
Decliners outnumbered gainers 132 to 89.
Saiful Adrian, an analyst at Ciptadana Securities, said he saw more upside ahead for the JCI despite the recent gains, which have seen the index climb 17 percent in the past five weeks.
He said profit-taking was relatively light, and predicted the index would reach 3,800 “in no time” given the strong economy and the global hunt for higher returns.
Metals producers advanced as prices continued to rise.
Timah, the country’s biggest tin company, rose 3.2 percent and Aneka Tambang, a state-run gold and nickel producer, advanced 2 percent.
Tin futures increased 1.9 percent to $26,412 a metric ton in London, set to extend Tuesday’s record.
Gold for immediate delivery jumped to a record for a second day, rising 0.6 percent to $1,348 an ounce in London.
Lippo Karawaci, the country’s biggest property developer, gained 4.6 percent on Wednesday, a day after soaring 8.3 percent on news that it would sell some of its malls, hospitals and hotels to raise capital in order to triple its assets by 2015.
Meanwhile, the rupiah gained 0.2 percent to 8,923 against the dollar as of the market’s close on Wednesday, contributing to this year’s 5.2 percent advance.
Analysts said the rupiah rally was triggered by unceasing demand for high-yielding assets in light of near-zero interest rates in Japan and the United States.
Bank Indonesia on Tuesday kept its benchmark rate at 6.5 percent for a 14th-straight month, while the Bank of Japan effectively lowered its policy rate to zero and pledged to buy up to $60 billion of assets.
The US Federal Reserve’s key rate is zero to 0.25 percent, and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said on Monday that a first round of asset purchases had lifted the economy and further buying would likely help more.
“The American economy is still weak and the spread between the BI rate and the Fed funds rate is still wide,” said Rully Nova, a currency analyst at Bank Himpunan Saudara.
“That’s supporting a stronger rupiah.”
However, further gains in the rupiah could be limited if the central bank began selling the currency for dollars to counter the appreciation that was putting exports at risk, he added.
The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves climbed $5.2 billion last month to a record $86.55 billion, the biggest increase since April, the central bank reported on Wednesday.
“Bank Indonesia will intervene in the rupiah so it won’t quickly move below 8,900,” Rully said.
Foreign holdings of local-currency government bonds climbed by Rp 78.8 trillion this year to Rp 186.8 trillion as of Oct. 5, figures from the Ministry of Finance showed.
Overseas funds have pumped a net $2.4 billion into Indonesian shares this year, according to exchange data.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment