Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Indonesian Shares Sharply Higher in Early Trade on Wall Street-led Rebound

Source: Antara

Jakarta - Indonesian shares were sharply higher in early trade Wednesday on a technical rebound driven by a strong rally on Wall Street overnight, ending a three-day fall.

The Dow posted its biggest gain in more than five years Tuesday after the Federal Reserve and other central banks announced a series of moves to pump more liquidity into the financial system to ease a credit crunch, Thomson Financial reported.

The Fed -- acting with the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank -- agreed to loan investment banks money in exchange for debt, including troubled mortgage-backed securities.

Gains on the Jakarta bourse were led by big caps such as index heavyweight Telkom, conglomerate Astra International and coal giant Bumi Resources, as well as banks and miners.

At 9.34 am, the composite index was up 70.87 points or 2.8 percent at 2,594.40.

The LQ-45 index was up 17.97 points at 561.34.

Gainers outnumbered decliners 91 to 3, with 12 stocks unchanged.