Soft Start Seen For Indonesia Stock Market

The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, sliding almost 170 points or 2.4 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 6,910-point plateau and it’s expected to open in the red again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets remains soft amidst uncertainty over interest rates and the health of the global economy. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian bourses are likely to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from the cement stocks and mixed performances from the financials and resource companies.

For the day, the index shed 29.94 points or 0.43 percent to finish at 6,909.21.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia declined 1.68 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga dropped 0.92 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia shed 0.57 percent, Bank Central Asia advanced 0.91 percent, Bank Mandiri strengthened 1.34 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia was down 0.68 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison added 0.36 percent, Indocement stumbled 1.60 percent, Semen Indonesia dipped 0.33 percent, Indofood Suskes slumped 0.82 percent, United Tractors increased 0.47 percent, Astra International retreated 1.35 percent, Energi Mega Persada plummeted 5.04 percent, Astra Agro Lestari lost 080 percent, Aneka Tambang sank 0.79 percent, Vale Indonesia rose 0.38 percent, Timah rallied 2.19 percent and Bumi Resources soared 3.66 percent

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened lower, bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before a late slide saw them finish with mild losses.

The Dow shed 28.34 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 29,210.85, while the NASDAQ eased 9.09 points or 0.09 percent to close at 10,417.10 and the S&P 500 fell 11.81 points or 0.33 percent to end at 3,577.03.

The late downward push came after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its latest monetary policy meeting, which showed that members expect interest rates to remain high till prices come down.

The members also lowered their projections for the economy and expect GDP to grow at just a 0.2 percent annualized pace in 2022 and just 1.2 percent in 2023, well below trend and big drop from 2021, which saw the strongest gains since 1984.

Also, the Labor Department said the Producer Price Index for final demand in the U.S. increased by 0.4 percent month-over-month in September, rising for the first time in three months.

Crude oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday, falling for a third straight session amid concerns about the outlook for demand due to slowing global growth after OPEC cut its demand forecast for this year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $2.02 or 2.26 percent at $87.33 a barrel.