Indonesia Bourse May Give Up Support At 7,600 Points

The Indonesia stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had tumbled almost 220 points or 3.2 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,640-point plateau and it’s expected to open to the downside on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains among the financial shares, cement stocks and resource companies.

For the day, the index jumped 114.20 points or 1.52 percent to finish at the daily high of 7,642.13 after moving as low as 7,547.11.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga rose 0.27 percent, while Bank Mandiri jumped 1.81 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia collected 0.47 percent, Bank Central Asia spiked 2.18 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia accelerated 2.53 percent, Bank Maybank Indonesia dropped 0.87 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison shed 0.46 percent, Indocement added 0.37 percent, Semen Indonesia rallied 2.37 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur strengthened 1.77 percent, United Tractors climbed 1.10 percent, Astra International improved 2.48 percent, Energi Mega Persada increased 1.83 percent, Astra Agro Lestari gained 1.89 percent, Aneka Tambang gathered 1.35 percent, Jasa Marga lost 0.61 percent, Vale Indonesia surge 3.43 percent, Timah soared 2.16 percent, Bumi Resources skyrocketed 17.21 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow dropped 173.18 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 42,156.97, while the NASDAQ plummeted 278.81 points or 1.53 percent to close at 17,910.36 and the S&P sank 53.73 points or 0.93 percent to end at 5,708.75.

The weakness on Wall Street came on rising tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Israel. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in recent Israeli airstrikes.

A senior White House official said earlier in the day that the U.S. had indications Iran was preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel, contributing to the early sell-off by stocks.

The news from the Middle East largely overshadowed separate report showing a continued contraction by U.S. manufacturing activity in September and an unexpected increase by U.S. job openings in August.

Oil prices moved higher on Tuesday amid the possibility of tight supplies due to an escalation in tensions in the Middle East after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November closed up $1.66 or nearly 2.5 percent at $69.83 a barrel.