Low Rupiah, Closed Monday Afternoon Down 0.81 Percent To Rp13,872 Per US Dollar

JAKARTA - Rupiah is still moving weaker as predicted by analysts. The rupiah on the spot market sluggish 0.81 percent to a level of Rp13,872 per US dollar (US), compared to the previous close of Rp13,760 per US dollar.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures Ariston Tjendra said market concerns were increasing again because the spread of the corona virus showed an increase in several locations or countries outside the epicenter of the outbreak, China's Hubei province, such as in Korea, Japan, Iran, and others.

"This concern has pushed the market into safe haven assets such as gold and US government bonds, so that the price of gold skyrocketed and continued to rise to the area of 1,649 US dollars per troy ounce last Friday and Monday morning it has risen to 1,681 US dollars per troy ounce.

"As well as the 10-year tenor US government bond yield continues to fall to the 1.47 percent area after previously consolidating around 1.6 percent. This has caused risk assets such as the rupiah to continue to be depressed today," Ariston told VOI.

The depreciation of the rupiah is in line with the majority of other Asian currencies. The Korean won decreased 0.90 percent against the US dollar, the Malaysian ringgit decreased 0.79 percent per US dollar.

Furthermore, the Thai baht also fell 0.28 percent per US dollar, and the Indian rupee fell 0.21 percent per US dollar.