Rupiah Opens in Red on Friday Morning

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The rupiah interbank trade rate in Jakarta slid by 24 points at the start of Friday's trading session, down to Rp12,504 per US dollar from its previous day's closing position. 

"The rupiah is depreciating against the greenback, in line with the movement of Asian currencies today," said the head of research at Woori Korindo Securities Indonesia, Reza Priyambada. 

Reza explained the rupiah depreciation happened along with the won's depreciation, as its central bank authority decides to cut its core interest rates. The rupiah's decline also occured right about when the yen slid against the majority of the world's currency, as a result of its decreasing flow of investments into the shares and obligations market. 

"The sentiments from South Korea and Japan are driving investors to return to the US dollar, which poses a negative impact on the rupiah," said Reza. 

On the other hand, the boost provided by the latest Federal Reserve Bank of America (the Fed) meeting is beginning to subside, which leads to the depreciation of the rupiah against the greenback.

An economist for Samuel Sekuritas, Rangga Cipta, added that the conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri) had yet to be resolved, which stirred worries among market players, both domestic and abroad.

That said, continued Rangga, investors would begin to shift their attention toward Indonesia's soon-to-be released inflation and trade balance figures, which were hoped to be able to assist in propping up the value of the rupiah in the future.

ANTARA