USD/IDR extends the vertical rise above 15k as Indonesian stocks crash

• USD/IDR nears the highest since late-2018.
• Coronavirus tally in Indonesia surges to 134 from 01 on March 02, key ministers tested positive.
• Indonesia Trade surprise rise, the government takes measures to tame the COVID-19 damages, lockdown ruled out.
• IDX revisit the lowest since January 2016, down more than 4.0% for the second day.

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) breakout infecting the key Indonesian ministers, USD/IDR surges to the highest since November 2018 while taking the bids to 15,070, up 0.54%, during the early Tuesday.

The Asian nation is witnessing a surge in the virus cases, to 134 from 01 on March, which recently infected their Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi. President Joko Widodo and his family are awaiting results of the tests while also turning down the calls of a countrywide lockdown.

To fight against the pandemic, the nation announced $8.1 billion as a budgeted outlay to provide tax incentives and subsidies for the virus-infected nationals. This is quite less compared to the neighboring nations, like the Philippines that took harsh measures to ban FX and Bond trading as well as lockdowns to safeguard against the pandemic.

While identifying the risk of the outbreak, the countries key share index IDX Composite drops 4.5% to 4,480 by the press time. The index dropped more than 4.0% the previous day amid magnified risk aversion.

On the positive side, the country’s February month trade surplus rose to $2.34 billion with diplomats marking it as a significant improvement due to the increase in exports.

On a major scale, the market’s risk aversion catches a breather amid a splurge of global policymakers’ actions to counter the disease.

Technical Analysis

Unless providing a daily close below 14,700 comprising late-December 2018 top, the buyers can keep targeting the year 2018 high close to $15,450.