TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Panin Sekuritas analyst William Hartanto predicts the rupiah to strengthen today. William projected that the rupiah will be moving within a range of 15,100 and Rp15,200 per US dollar.
"The [positive] external sentiment comes from the possibilities of a treaty in the US-China trade war," he said on Monday, October 15.
The global factors that will support the rupiah today, William said, include the US' completed investigation—revealing that China did not commit currency manipulation. Meanwhile, domestically, there is no factor that can affect the rupiah significantly, including today's scheduled trade balance release.
William said there will still a deficit as imports are still quite high, although he said that investors are expecting a curbed deficit margin.
On the contrary, Bank Mandiri money market analyst Reny Eka Putri predicted the rupiah to weaken today; moving between 15,192 and 15,264 per US dollar.
"Influential factors are still those revolving trade concerns and anticipations over Indonesia's trade balance release, she said.
Bank Indonesia's (BI) website showed that the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR) stood at 15,194 per US dollar on October 12. At the central bank, the selling rate of US$1 on that date was Rp15,270 while the purchase rate was Rp15,118.
MUHAMMAD HENDARTYO