Indonesian share prices closed 1.4 percent higher on Wednesday following Wall Street's rebound on easing fears about the US credit crisis, although gains were pared by late profit-taking, dealers said.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index closed up 37.66 points at 2,691.87, off an intraday high of 2,714.21. Volume was 5.76 billion shares worth 7.21 trillion rupiah (782.84 million dollars).
Gainers led losers 149 to 42, while 63 stocks were unchanged. The rupiah was trading at 9,200/9,210 to the dollar, down from 9,183/9,188 on Tuesday. The market's strong rebound shows that apart from the credit crisis in the US, there are no other factors having a negative impact on the market, said Agustini Hamid, an analyst with Recapital Securities.
US stocks closed higher overnight after the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart reported higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings and Goldman Sachs, the world's largest securities company by market value, said it is not expecting a significant hit from the crisis.
"Going forward, I think the main concern for us is the oil price. We may start to see its impact next year when manufacturing companies begin to hike the selling prices of their products," she said.
Large cap banking stocks led the rally. Bank Mandiri rose 100 rupiah to 3,625, Bank Central Asia added 200 to 7,200, and Bank Rakyat Indonesia rose 350 to 8,150. Bank Internasional Indonesia rose 25 to 305 on continuing speculation about the possible sale of Temasek's stake in the bank to Kookmin Bank of South Korea.
Auto giant Astra International gained 1,000 to 24,000 after Morgan Stanley raised its target price for the stock by 36 percent to 32,000 rupiah to reflect higher earnings estimates. Among other gainers, tin miner Timah rose 450 to 22,800 and coal miner Bukit Asam added 650 to 10,950. Index heavyweight Telkom lost 150 to 10,700.