REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The rupiah gained in value against the US dollar in the first minutes of trade on Wednesday morning.

The currency traded at the level of 11,513 gaining from 11,548 to the US dollar.

"Good market expectation of inflation in April served as a catalyst to strengthen rupiah," chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said.

Reza said expectation is positive for trade balance which is forecast to favor the country again with a surplus.

"Cumulatively the Indonesian trade balance is still in deficit but the deficit is narrowing," he said.

However, there are still negative external sentiments hampering rupiah from gaining more strength, with the US Central Bank planning to cut again its financial stimulus by US$10 billion a month, he said.

In addition international sanction imposed on Russia over Ukraine crisis and German inflation not up to expectation and British economic slowdown caused a drag in the global economic recovery, he said.

"The sentiments in the financial markets are varying curbing rupiah movements," he said.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta composite index (JCI) opened 14.55 points higher on a number of publicly listed companies reporting good performances in the first quarter of this year.

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange rose 0.3 percent to 4,834.24 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks up 0.47 percent to 815.88 points.

Analysts of Kresna Securities Etta Rusdiana Putra said Jakarta, most of publicly traded companies performed well as expected by the market.

Strong financial performances reported the companies offset the negative pressure of profit taking on the domestic market," Etta said.

"Currently is the time to buy shares for long term investment," she said.

Positive domestic sentiments would still contribute to pushing up the share prices especially with inflation and trade balance data are expected by the market, she added.

She acknowledged that the market players need to closely watch negative external factors such as the Fed plan to trim its financial stimulus.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng fell 0.33 percent in index to 22,379.09, with Nikkei index up 0.67 percent to 14,383.64 and that of Straits Times gaining 0.76 percent to 3,263.20 points.

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