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adio broadcasting company PT Mahaka Radio Integra might have enjoyed a smooth ride on its first day listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) on Thursday, but its celebrations could be short-lived amid likely tighter competition with existing visual-media giants on the bourse.

Traded under the code MARI, shares in the subsidiary company of publicly listed media group PT Mahaka Media, owned by media baron Erick Thohir, jumped 24 percent at opening to Rp 930 (7 US cents) apiece from its offering price of Rp 750 before closing the day at Rp 770.

However, analysts have said that MARI has its work cut out to compete with visual media firms given the public'€™s preference for visual media over audio media.

'€œOther choices are available with bigger market capitalization amounts,'€ LBP Enterprise analyst Lucky Bayu Purnomo said over the phone, citing the shares of media giant PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNCN) and PT Visi Media Asia (VIVA) as examples.

In contrast to the two giants that run a wide range of networks from radio and online to television stations, MARI only runs PT Radio Attahiriyah, PT Radio Camar and PT Suara Irama Indah, operater of radio station Jak FM in Jakarta and Gen FM in Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java.

Lucky added that investors needed to watch the stocks'€™ moves for the next six months to find out whether the shares were truly promising.

IDX data showed that the company offered 105.05 million shares, 20 percent of its paid-up capital, at a price of Rp 750 each. It raisedRp 78.79 billion from its initial public offering (IPO).

According to a company statement, as much as 60 percent of the funds raised would be used for business development and/or new investments while the remainder would pay off loans of its subsidiaries at Bank UOB Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Asjaya Indosurya Sekuritas analyst William Surya Wijaya shared a similar view, saying that it was common for a stock to spike on its first listing day. Moreover, the IDX benchmark, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), had a positive day that day.

'€œThe stock rode the sentiment of the JCI,'€ he said.

The JCI closed on Thursday at 4,775, 0.92 percent higher than its previous close at 4,732.

The index has expanded by 3.98 percent as of Wednesday, the only stock index to record positive growth in the region.

Foreign investors continued to book net buys, increasing the total to Rp 1.49 trillion so far this year.

Both Lucky and William attributed the index'€™s bullish move to the improving rupiah value against the US dollar.

The rupiah rose 1.1 percent, the most since Oct. 15, to 13,463 a dollar, Bloomberg reported. The currency stood at Rp 13,369 against the greenback on Thursday according to the Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR), 1.25 percent higher than the Rp 13,538 the previous day.