Indonesia Bourse May Give Up Support At 7,000 Points

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in five straight sessions, sinking more than 170 points or 2.6 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,035-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is brutal on growing fears of a recession and rising interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Thursday as the financial shares and resource stocks ended mostly in the red.

For the day, the index sank 40.83 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 7,036.20.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia plunged 3.41 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga tumbled 1.83 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia slid 0.28 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.60 percent, Bank Mandiri shed 0.54 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia dropped 0.88 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison gained 0.68 percent, Indocement skidded 1.02 percent, Semen Indonesia strengthened 1.35 percent, Indofood Suskes declined 1.23 percent, United Tractors added 0.38 percent, Astra International fell 0.37 percent, Energi Mega Persada plummeted 3.05 percent, Astra Agro Lestari tanked 2.33 percent, Aneka Tambang dipped 0.26 percent, Timah surrendered 2.24 percent, Bumi Resources advanced 0.76 percent and Vale Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Thursday and remained deeply in the red, although they closed off of sessions lows.

The Dow tumbled 458.13 points or 1.54 percent to finish at 29,225.61, while the NASDAQ plunged 314.13 points or 2.84 percent to close at 10,737.51 and the S&P 500 dropped 78.57 points or 2.11 percent to end at 3,640.47.

The sharp pullback on Wall Street came as traders cashed in on Wednesday's gains, as the buying interest generated by the Bank of England's bond market intervention quickly evaporated. The moves by the BoE contributed to a pullback by bond yields and the U.S. dollar, inspiring traders to pick up stocks at reduced levels. But bond yields moved back to the upside, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note partly offsetting Wednesday's 25.9 basis point plunge.

A Labor Department report showing first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly fell to a five-month low last week also weighed on the markets. While the report points to continued strength in the labor market, traders may view the data as giving the Federal Reserve confidence that it can continue to aggressively raise interest rates.

Adding to the negative sentiment on Wall Street, data from Freddie Mac showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.70 percent in the week ending September 29th, up from 6.29 percent the week before.

Crude oil prices fluctuated over the course of the trading day on Thursday before closing lower on concerns about the outlook for energy demand amidst a possible global recession. West Texas Intermediate for November delivery slid $0.92 or 1.1 percent to $81.23 per barrel.