Soft Start Called For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Friday snapped the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 50 points or 0.6 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 7,830-point plateau and it's expected to open under water again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The JCI finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the food and finance sectors, while the cement and resource stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index stumbled 121.60 points or 1.53 percent to finish at 7,830.49 after trading between 7,765.60 and 7,913.86.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga skidded 1.16 percent, while Bank Mandiri sank 0.84 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia tumbled 1.96 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia retreated 1.79 percent, Bank Central Asia plunged 3.00 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia tanked 2.17 percent, Indocement climbed 1.08 percent, Semen Indonesia surrendered 2.93 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur stumbled 1.97 percent, United Tractors slumped 1.11 percent, Astra International declined 1.35 percent, Energi Mega Persada cratered 4.31 percent, Astra Agro Lestari contracted 1.68 percent, Aneka Tambang rallied 2.01 percent, Vale Indonesia weakened 1.58 percent, Timah added 0.49 percent, Bumi Resources crashed 2.68 percent and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water and stayed that way throughout the trading day.

The Dow dropped 92.02 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 45,544.88, while the NASDAQ tumbled 249.65 points or 1.15 percent to end at 21,455.55 and the S&P 500 sank 41.60 points or 0.64 percent to close at 6,420.26. For the week, the S&P 500 eased 0.1 percent and the Dow and NASDAQ both dipped 0.2 percent.

The weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking, as some traders looked to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

Meanwhile, traders seemingly shrugged off a typically closely watched Commerce Department report showing U.S. consumer prices increased in line with estimates in July.

While the data increased confidence the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, a September rate cut may already have been priced into the markets. CME Group's FedWatch is currently indicating an 87.1 percent chance that the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point at its next monetary policy meeting.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on concerns on overproduction concerns as OPEC recently agreed to increase crude production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was down $0.60 or 0.93 percent at $64.00 per barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will provide July figures for imports, exports and trade balance, plus August data for consumer prices later today. In June, imports were up 4.28 percent on year and exports rose 11.29 percent for a trade surplus of $4.11 billion. Overall inflation was up 0.3 percent on month and 2.37 percent on year in July, while core CPI rose an annual 2.32 percent.