Soft Start Called For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market found renewed selling pressure on Tuesday, one session after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had slumped more than 70 points or 1 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 6,930-point plateau and it's predicted to move lower again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower ahead of key U.S. inflation data later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, resource stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index fell 29.42 points or 0.42 percent to finish at 6,933.97.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga slumped 1.19 percent, while Bank Mandiri dropped 0.84 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia retreated 1.39 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia tanked 1.59 percent, Bank Central Asia fell 0.27 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia sank 0.92 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison slid 0.25 percent, Indocement tumbled 1.81 percent, Semen Indonesia weakened 1.06 percent, Indofood Suskes stumbled 1.44 percent, United Tractors gained 0.65 percent, Astra International skidded 1.18 percent, Energi Mega Persada surrendered 1.43 percent, Astra Agro Lestari lost 0.67 percent, Aneka Tambang shed 0.51 percent, Timah plunged 2.27 percent, Bumi Resources plummeted 3.55 percent and Vale Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Tuesday, rallied midday and then finished under water.

The Dow dipped 17.73 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 34,645.99, while the NASDAQ tumbled 144.28 points or 1.04 percent to close at 13,773.61 and the S&P 500 sank 25.56 points or 0.57 percent to end at 4,461.90.

The lower close on Wall Street came as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation later today.

The inflation data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week; CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 93.0 percent chance the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged.

A steep drop by shares of Oracle (ORCL) weighed on the tech-heavy NASDAQ, with the software giant plunging by 13.5 percent after the company reported weaker than expected fiscal first quarter revenues and provided disappointing revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Oil prices moved sharply higher on Tuesday to a 10-month closing high after the monthly report from (OPEC) showed the oil market may be a lot tighter than initially thought. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for October ended higher by $1.55 or 1.8 percent at $88.84 a barrel.