Analyst Purwoko Sartono said stocks in commodity sectors have been on the rise in the past several days to follow the US dollar strengthening.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s benchmark stock index rose significantly on Tuesday driven mainly by shares in commodity sectors.

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) closed 1.53 percent higher at 4,164.01 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks up 1.85 percent to 691.39 points.

Panin Sekuritas` analyst Purwoko Sartono said stocks in commodity sectors have been on the rise in the past several days to follow the US dollar strengthening.

The rise in the BEI index also followed the positive sentiment from the regional markets boosted by improved manufacturing data recorded by China and Europe.

"Chinese and European manufacturing sector grew beyond expectations," Purwoko said.

The country`s trade deficit in July, however, brought about negative sentiment to the market curbing the upward movement of the BEI index, he said.

"The BEI index is still highly volatile," he said.

There were 183,212 transactions in Tuesday`s trading with 4.025 billion shares worth Rp4.155 trillion changing hands.

Gainers outnumbered decliners by 179 to 96 with 78 shares unchanged.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded a 0.99 percent rise in index to 22,394.58 points, with Nikkei-225 index up 2.99 percent to 13,978.44 points and that of Straits Times gaining 0.07 percent to 3,057.95 points.

Meanwhile, rupiah sank again losing more value against the US dollar on worries about the US central bank cutting its monetary stimulus this month.

Rupiah closed at the level of 11,435 per dollar weakening from the level of 11,350 earlier.

Monex Investindo Futures` analyst Zulfirman Basir said

negative sentiment continue to hit rupiah with the release of a series of discouraging economic data domestically including trade deficit and current account deficit.

Zulfirman the country`s economic fundamentals had tended to decline weakening rupiah.

Bank Indonesia, however, is expected to continue to protect rupiah from sinking deeper, he said.

The middle exchange rates of Bank Indonesia on Tuesday showed that rupiah weakened to 10,983 from 10,922 per dollar earlier. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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