Still Supported By Positive Sentiment, Rupiah Opened Strongly To Level Rp14,060 Per US Dollar

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The rupiah exchange rate on the spot market was able to strengthen at the opening of trading on Wednesday, June 17. The rupiah opened up 25 points to a level of Rp14,060 per US dollar (US).

Head of Research at Monex Investindo Futures, Ariston Tjendra, said that the positive sentiment from the US Central Bank's latest stimulus policy seems to have triggered the strengthening of risk assets this morning.

"The rupiah can still strengthen against the US dollar today because of the Fed's sentiment," Ariston told VOI.

In addition, positive sentiment was also triggered by the US government's stimulus plan of US $ 1 trillion for infrastructure. The release of last night's US retail sales data, which had an increase in May, also reinforced positive sentiment that the economic reopening is driving recovery.

"US retail sales data grew 17.7 percent month to month in May compared to April's data which fell 14.7 percent," said Ariston.

But on the other hand, he continued, the emergence of a second wave (second wave) of COVID-19 and the still high spread of the outbreak around the world is still a concern for the market. This concern can hold the strengthening and trigger the weakening of risk assets again.

"The IMF report on the global economic contraction, which is estimated to exceed previous predictions, could also be a stressor for risky assets. The rupiah has the potential to strengthen to the support range of IDR 14,000 with the potential to weaken to around IDR 14,150 per US dollar," said Ariston.

Currency movements in the region today tend to vary. Apart from the rupiah, the Taiwan dollar and Japanese yen were also in the green zone after gaining 0.11 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.

Then there was the Singapore dollar which managed to increase by 0.04 percent and the Thai baht which slightly strengthened by 0.003 percent.

Meanwhile, the South Korean won became the currency with the deepest weakness in Asia after weakening 0.63 percent against the US dollar. Next came the Philippine peso and the Chinese yuan, which fell 0.19 percent and 0.10 percent respectively

Furthermore, the Malaysian ringgit and Hong Kong dollar fell slightly, respectively 0.03 percent and 0.003 percent.