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Technology Stocks : INDONESIA'S PT TELECOM(TLK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Wang who wrote (112)	1/23/1998 8:25:00 AM
From: Duke	Respond to of 947

FOCUS-Asia markets still jittery over Indonesia (Recasts, updates market figures) By Sarah Davison HONG KONG, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia's revised budget did little to stabilise Asian markets on Friday, and some traded weaker on continued worries about the country's debt crisis. Indonesian Finance Minister Mar'ie Muhammad raised revenue projections and expenditures in a new budget that appeared to closely track last week's deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But traders said that in the absence of any big budget surprises, markets remained focused on the sliding rupiah and the nation's inability to pay its corporate debt. ''So what?'' one Hong Kong trader said of the latest budget announcement. ''There isn't a single solvent company in Indonesia with the rupiah so weak.'' The central bank, Bank Indonesia, stepped in to support the rupiah on Friday morning. Dollar sales at the 14,000 level restored some short-term strength, but traders said the outlook was poor. ''This is not intervention designed to more permanently prop up the value of the rupiah...It is entirely centred on the spot, providing dollars to enable onshore Indonesian banks to repay their liabilities,'' Daniel Lian, head of markets research at ANZ in Singapore told Reuters Financial Television. The rupiah interest rate is not high enough to compensate for uncertainty about the country's banking sector, private debt burden and political unease, he said. ''The rupiah rate doesn't offer compensation for investors for the risk premium, so there will not be support for the rupiah,'' Lian said, adding that he felt capital controls were inevitable. The strongest stock market on Friday was Tokyo, which resumed its recent rally after Thursday's dip and closed up 2.34 percent at 16,789.11. But the rupiah's freefall hurt parts of the region, even though many stock and currency markets managed to claw back some lost ground in late trading. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed slightly stronger on Friday, reversing course in mid-afternoon as bargain-hunting surfaced. The index ended 36.47 points higher at 8,920.20 after a week-long battering triggered by the liquidation of brokerages Peregrine and C.A. Pacific Securities. Dealers said the mood in Hong Kong remained grim, with the territory's confidence under siege just a few months after its July 1 return to Chinese sovereignty. The overall tone in Asia was weak, with thin trading ahead of next week's Chinese New Year holiday exaggerating market movements. The rupiah's woes kept currencies soft while stock markets were mixed with sporadic signs of foreign interest. Singapore's dollar was weaker at 1.7610 against 1.7565 on Thursday while its stock market dipped 0.76 percent to end at 1,259.83. The Malaysian ringgit recovered from its low in the morning of 4.61 against the dollar, rising to 4.5280 in late trading. Dealers said ringgit investors took heart in the Indonesian central bank's rupiah intervention. But longer-term concerns over Indonesia's currency pushed Malaysia's Composite Index of stocks down 2.89 percent to close at 558.57. The Thai baht was virtually unchanged at 54.75 but stocks closed marginally higher, up 2.07 points, or 0.49 percent, at 422.87. The Philippine peso recovered some ground to 43.80 after crashing through its third volatility band in early trade. But the unit's weakness in the absence of foreign buying helped to depress stocks by 0.21 percent to 1,704.07 points. The Taiwan dollar quickly fell through the T$34 level, partly because of the weakness of the rupiah, but it recovered to close at T$33.925. The stock market was closed. Jakarta stocks managed to gain ground throughout the day and closed 1.68 percent stronger at 450.98 on arbitrage with American Depositary Receipts, and domestic support, traders said. Holiday cash demand lifted the South Korean won on Friday to 1,745.0 from 1,752.0 on Thursday while stocks made marginal gains to close at 486.86 points.