Indonesia Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has tracked lower in back-to-back sessions, giving up nearly 140 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just beneath the 7,325-point plateau and it figures to remain stuck in neutral again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European and U.S. markets mostly saw slight weakness and the Asian markets figure to follow that lead.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Monday as losses from the financial shares and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the cement companies.

For the day, the index slumped 69.45 points or 0.94 percent to finish at the daily low of 7,324.79 after peaking at 7,399.90.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga dropped 0.84 percent, while Bank Mandiri retreated 1.63 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia stumbled 3.07 percent, Bank Central Asia declined 1.23 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia surrendered 2.11 percent, Bank Maybank Indonesia sank 0.92 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison surged 4.37 percent, Indocement added 0.68 percent, Semen Indonesia gained 0.59 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur slid 0.30 percent, United Tractors improved 0.63 percent, Astra International rose 0.49 percent, Energi Mega Persada plunged 3.17 percent, Astra Agro Lestari shed 0.80 percent, Aneka Tambang tumbled 1.86 percent, Jasa Marga lost 0.89 percent, Vale Indonesia rallied 1.28 percent, Timah slumped 2.07 percent, Bumi Resources skidded 1.38 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests mild downside as the major averages opened higher on Friday but quickly slipped under water and largely stayed that way, although the NASDAQ broke back into positive territory later in the day.

The Dow shed 86.04 points or 0.20 percent to finish at 43,828.06, while the NASDAQ rose 23.92 points or 0.12 percent to close at 19,926.72 and the S&P 500 eased 0.16 points or 0.00 percent to end at 6,051.09.

For the week, the NASDAQ rose 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent and the narrower Dow tumbled 1.8 percent.

The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected a positive reaction to earnings news from Broadcom (AVGO), which reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter earnings and said it expects continued strong demand for its custom AI chips.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as traders looked ahead to this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another 25 basis points, although traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about future rate cuts.

Oil futures settled higher on Friday as supply worries resurfaced following additional sanctions on Iran and Russia. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January closed up $1.27 or about 1.8 percent at $71.29 a barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will release November figures for imports, exports and trade balance later today; in October, imports were up 17.49 percent on year and exports rose 10.25 percent for a trade surplus of $2.47 billion.