Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The rupiah strengthened against the dollar on Monday evening as foreign investors began to enter the market of developing countries, a money market analyst said.

"Foreign investors` positive assessment of the fundamentals of developing countries including Indonesia has prompted the rupiah to appreciate against the dollar," Abidin of Milenium Sekuritas said here on Monday.

The local unit traded at Rp9,172 per dollar in the Jakarta interbank spot market on Monday evening, up 11 points compared to Rp9,183 per dollar at the weekend.

Foreign investors entered the market of developing countries in the hope of gaining higher profit from yields than that from assets placed in developed nations whose economy was growing at a slower pace, he said.

He noted that US bond yields which now came under pressure was one of the factors causing investors to dump the dollar and put their money in assets which had higher yields.

That Bank Indonesia (the central bank/BI) still intervened in the money market to keep the rupiah at below Rp9,200 per dollar had caused the Indonesian currency to strengthen against the dollar, he said.

Analyst Johanes Ginting of Monex Investindo Futures said the recently-released US economic data which unexpectedly recorded slow growth had led to strong dollar sell-offs. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012