Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Jakarta composite index opened higher in the Fridays opening trade on technical factor with market players buying heavily .

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) rose 21.21 points or 0.45 percent to 4,720.19 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.38 percent to 791.68.

"Technical factor pushed up the BEI index. A number of stocks under pressure on Thursday rebounded today," Samuel Sekuritas analyst Yualdo Yudoprawiro said.

Increases were led by bank, cement, construction stocks and Astra International (ASII), he said.

Main external factor is still the tension between Russia and the United States over the annexation of Crimea by Moscow, he said.

The tension escalated after President Obama announced plan to impose sanctions and embargo on important element of Russian economy.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng recorded an increase of 0.27 percent in index to 21,240.07 points with Nikkei index down 1.65 percent to 14,224.23 points and that of Straits Times gaining 0.39 percent to 3,068.47 points

Meanwhile, rupiah in inter-bank transaction gained against the US dollar in the first minutes of trading on Friday.

The currency traded at the level of 11,420 per dollar gaining from the previous day level of 11,439 per dollar.

"Rupiah took a reverse today, boosted by technical factor after yesterdays pressure," chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said.

Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia estimated that there was surplus again in the countrys balance of payments in February pushing up rupiah to a positive area, Reza said.

In addition Bank Indonesia predicted that the countrys economy would post a fairly strong growth at around 5.5--5.9 percent this year driven mainly by higher domestic consumption.

However, rupiah appreciation would be hampered by the US central bank announcing plan to further cut its financial stimulus and raise the Fed rate.

Monex Investindo Futures analyst Zulfirman Basir said the US dollar is still attractive with fears of the impact of Russian-West conflict over Crimea .

"That could still serve a negative sentiment for rupiah," Zulfirman said.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014