Rupiah Powerless Again, Opened Weakened To A Level Of Rp14,388 Per US Dollar

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market was opened lower at the opening of trading on March 2. The rupiah opened down 20 points or 0.14 percent to a level of Rp14,338 per US dollar.

Based on VOI monitoring, at 8:42 a.m., the rupiah weakened again 0.40 percent to Rp 14,375 per US dollar. This is the weakening of the rupiah in 10 consecutive trading days.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said that COVID-19 was still the headline and negative sentiment for risky assets earlier this week, including the rupiah, which has the potential to be depressed again.

"News reports are increasing the number of people infected outside China at a fast rate such as in Korea, Italy and Iran, and there are new countries infected," Ariston told VOI.

Asian stock indices are seen opening negative this morning. The market is still interested in shifting assets to safe assets. US government bond yields continued to fall to a new low of 1.027 percent due to high demand.

The market, according to him, is also anticipating poor February data on China's manufacturing activity index surveyed by Markit.

"Data has the potential to show China's manufacturing activity will contract. Manufacturing contraction in China could have a negative impact on partner countries, especially suppliers of raw materials," he explained.

He also predicts that the rupiah will move in the range of IDR 14,100-14,400 per US dollar today.

Within 10 trading days, the rupiah had depreciated, weakening 5.16 percent. The fear factor is still looming over Asian financial markets in early trading this morning.

This morning's depreciation in the rupiah is still the worst weakening in the Asian region. In fact, the majority of currencies in Asia this morning began to strengthen against the US dollar. Only the rupiah and the peso still surrendered to the US dollar.