Jakarta stock market may trade higher

Indonesia's stock market is expected to trade higher in the coming week amid predictions that interest rates will drop, an analyst said Friday.
Some analysts are expecting a quarter percentage point rate cut next Tuesday when the central Bank Indonesia's board next meets, but others are of the view that the bank will wait until June before easing.
Bank Indonesia has kept its key policy rate unchanged at 12.75 percent at the previous four meetings.
"An educated guess is that the market will go up. If the central bank will drop interest rates early next week this is obviously good," said a trader with Asian investment bank CLSA. He said property and bank stocks should do well over the coming week.
"Focus will remain on interest rate-sensitive stocks, such as bank and property, they might go up," he said. Jakarta's benchmark broke through the psychological barrier of 1,500 points on Thursday, but later dropped back below it. The rally was however a strong indicator of investor confidence in Indonesia, particularly from foreigners, the trader said.