Jakarta share prices finished 2.7 percent higher at a new all-time high Tuesday, supported by Wall Street's rise overnight and a regional market rally, dealers said. The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index closed up 65.49 points at a new all-time high of 2,464.94, which is also a new record intraday high.
The previous intraday high of 2,405.96 was hit on July 26, while the last closing high of 2,401.14 was made on July 24. Volume was 5.73 billion shares valued at 6.24 trillion rupiah (685.71 million dollars). Gainers beat decliners 134 to 63, with 67 stocks unchanged. The Indonesian rupiah was trading at 9,095/9,100 to the dollar, compared to 9,088/9,093 late Monday.
The gains were led by major stocks, including Indonesia's largest telephone company Telkom and auto maker Astra International. Erdikha Elit analyst Muhammad Reza said the market's rally Tuesday was partly driven by an inflow of funds from overseas institutional investors.
"Global institutional investors expect the Fed to cut its fed funds rate again on the back of the likely slowdown of the US economy. This has led global institutional investors to shift their funds from the US to emerging markets, including Indonesia," Reza said.
The foreign capital inflow has also been reflected in the strengthening of the local currency, the rupiah, in recent days, he noted. Batavia Prosperindo analyst Santikno Suherman said investors, in particular foreign players, were buying blue chip stocks such as Telkom heavily in Wednesday's session.
"Apart from positive broad market sentiment, I think investors were also buying Telkom on hopes the company will post strong earnings this year, driven by the rise of its cellular subscriber base," Suherman said. Telkom closed up 650 rupiah to 12,000. Telkom's rival, Indosat, however dropped 300 to 8,450 on profit-taking after Monday's strong rally.