On Friday, Rupiah Closed Slightly Lower To Rp13,693 Per US Dollar

Illustration. (Photo: Bank Indonesia)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market closed slightly higher at the close of trading on Friday, February 14. The rupiah strengthened only 1 point or to a level of Rp13,693 per US dollar.

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said the corona virus was still a rupiah market mover until this afternoon.

"With the new method, on this second day, China's Hubei Province reported new cases again but the number was much lower than before, around 5,000 vs around 15,000," Ariston told VOI.

According to him, this could mean that the cases began to subside at the center of the Chinese outbreak. And this helps ease market anxiety and thus helps strengthen the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar.

In addition, he continued, previously WHO said that the increase in the number of people affected by the corona virus due to changes in diagnosis did not mean that there was an increase in the number of new infections at one time.

"The 10-year US bond yield also decreased to 1.59 percent from today's opening in the range of 1.61 percent. This will help strengthen other exchange rates against the US dollar," he concluded.

Currency movements in the region are also classified as diverse. The Malaysian ringgit became the currency with the highest gain after gaining 0.06 percent.

Followed by the Philippine peso which rose 0.03 percent. The Japanese yen and Hong Kong dollar also lifted 0.01 percent and 0.001 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the outbreak of the corona virus which has not stopped weighing in on the Chinese yuan and making it the currency with the biggest weakness in front of the US dollar. The yuan eroded 0.09 percent.

Following this, the Indian rupee fell 0.08 percent. Meanwhile, the Thai baht and Singapore dollar were both corrected by 0.07 percent and 0.05 percent. The Korean won and the Taiwan dollar also edged down 0.01 percent.