Soft Start Anticipated For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Friday ended the two-day slide in which it had slumped almost 60 points or 0.8 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 6,910-point plateau although it's likely to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on continuing concerns over the outlook for interest rates and a global recession. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares and resource stocks.

For the day, the index gained 60.33 points or 0.89 percent to finish at 6,812.10.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 0.35 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga added 0.41 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia rallied 3.43 percent, Bank Central Asia climbed 1.18 percent, Bank Mandiri jumped 2.02 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia improved 1.43 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison surged 4.19 percent, Indocement advanced 1.02 percent, Semen Indonesia plunged 2.77 percent, Indofood Suskes shed 0.36 percent, United Tractors perked 0.09 percent, Astra International shed 0.43 percent, Energi Mega Persada retreated 1.88 percent, Astra Agro Lestari rose 0.31 percent, Aneka Tambang soared 4.39 percent, Vale Indonesia strengthened 1.37 percent, Timah gained 0.42 percent and Bumi Resources skidded 1.15 percent

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

The Dow tumbled 281.74 points or 0.85 percent to finish at 32,920.46, while the NASDAQ dropped 105.09 points or 0.97 percent to close at 10,705.41 and the S&P 500 sank 43.39 points or 1.11 percent to end at 3,852.36.

For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 2.7 percent, the S&P declined 2.1 percent and the Dow retreated 1.7 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the economy. The Fed's hawkish tone in its latest monetary policy announcement has added to worries about the central bank's aggressive rate hikes tipping the economy into a recession.

While inflation has recently shown signs of slowing, the Fed signaled it plans to continue raising interest rates next year.

Crude oil prices fell sharply Friday amid concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to a global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $1.82 or 2.4 percent at $74.29 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 4.4 percent in the week.