Indonesia Shares May Find Traction On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, slumping more than 115 points or 1.6 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just beneath the 7,210-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, with selling in the previous session deemed to be seriously overdone. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished sharply lower on Wednesday following losses from the finance and cement companies, while the resource stocks offered support.

For the day, the index retreated 87.93 points or 1.20 percent to finish at 7,209.74 after trading between 7,197.83 and 7,299.20.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga rallied 2.10 percent, while Bank Mandiri skidded 1.06 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia strengthened 1.40 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia slumped 1.26 percent, Bank Central Asia sank 0.77 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia lost 0.41 percent, Indocement tanked 1.97 percent, Semen Indonesia dropped 0.81 percent, Indofood Suskes shed 0.78 percent, United Tractors fell 0.32 percent, Astra International tumbled 1.89 percent, Energi Mega Persada accelerated 2.97 percent, Astra Agro Lestari declined 1.08 percent, Aneka Tambang surged 5.46 percent, Vale Indonesia dipped 0.25 percent, Timah spiked 2.65 percent, Bumi Resources soared 4.65 percent and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and largely remained that way, ending near session highs.

The Dow jumped 151.52 points or 0.40 percent to finish at 38,424.27, while the NASDAQ rallied 203.55 points or 1.30 percent to end at 15,859.15 and the S&P 500 advanced 47.45 points or 0.96 percent to close at 5,000.62.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting, with traders seeing Tuesday's sharp pullback as a buying opportunity amid ongoing optimism about the outlook for the markets.

While Tuesday's hotter-than-expected inflation data further pushed back interest rate cut hopes, signs of continued strength in the economy are still expected to benefit the markets long term.

The Federal Reserve is also still likely to begin lower interest rates sometime in the coming months, even if traders have to wait until June.

Oil futures settled lower on Wednesday, snapping a seven-day winning streak after data showed a big increase in crude inventories in the U.S. last week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended down $1.23 or about 1.6 percent at $76.64 a barrel.