Indonesia Stock Market May End Losing Streak On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slipping almost 85 points or 1.1 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just shy of the 7,860-point plateau although it's likely to stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on an improved outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Friday following mixed performances from the finance, cement, food and resource sectors.

For the day, the index sank 31.86 points or 0.40 percent to finish at the daily low of 7,858.85 after peaking at 7,913.39.

Among the actives, Bank Mandiri dipped 0.20 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 0.39 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia stumbled 2.23 percent, Bank Central Asia skidded 1.17 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia slumped 1.20 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison plunged 3.69 percent, Semen Indonesia sank 0.72 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur dropped 0.95 percent, Astra International rallied 1.33 percent, Energi Mega Persada tumbled 1.77 percent, Astra Agro Lestari jumped 1.36 percent, Aneka Tambang fell 0.35 percent, Vale Indonesia slid 0.27 percent, Timah declined 1.47 percent and Bumi Resources, Bank CIMB Niaga, Indocement and United Tractors were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is solid as the major averages opened higher on Friday and continued to trend upward as the day continued, ending near session highs.

The Dow surged 846.24 points or 1.89 percent to finish at 45,631.74, while the NASDAQ rallied 396.23 points or 1.88 percent to end at 21,496.54 and the S&P 500 jumped 96.74 points or 1.52 percent to close at 6,466.91.

For the week, the Dow spiked 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ slipped 0.6 percent and the S&P rose 0.3 percent.

The rally on Wall Street came in reaction to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech before the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

While Powell touched only briefly on the outlook for monetary policy, his remarks have increased investor confidence that the Fed will lower interest rates next month.

Following Powell's remarks, CME Group's FedWatch Tool jumped to indicate an 83.1 percent chance the Fed will lower rates by a quarter point next month, up from 75.0 percent a day earlier.

Crude oil prices rose modestly on Friday as expectations of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal waned with no progress. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up $0.13 pr 0.20 percent at $63.65 per barrel.