Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia's benchmark stock index fell slightly in the opening trade of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) on Monday while investors were awaiting first half of the year's financial reports of traded companies to be issued.

The BEI index dropped 9.77 points or 0.21 percent to 4,649.10 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks down 0.56 percent to 772.81 points.

"The movements of BEI index would follow the financial performance of companies with big capitalization such as Bank Mandiri (BMRI) and Bank Central Asia (BBCA), which are expected to publish their financial reports this afternoon," Samuel Sekuritas' analyst, Benedictus Agung, said here on Monday.

The Astra Group, one of the country's largest conglomerates is also expected to publish this week its financial report for first half of this year

PT Trust Securities' chief researcher Reza Priyambada predicted sales pressure would continue on share trade in the first day of this week.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.71 percent decline in index to 21,812, with Nikkei-225 index down 2.45 percent to 13,783.50 points and that of Straits Times falling 0.48 percent to 3,220.71 points.

Meanwhile, the national currency rupiah continued to tend to be on the decline .

In inter-bank transactions on Monday morning rupiah traded at 10,280 per US dollar losing 10 points from previous level of 10,270

Editor: Ade P Marboen
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