Losses May Accelerate For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day winning streak in which it had picked up almost 30 points or 0.4 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just shy of the 7,180-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on continuing recession fears. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower on Friday and now the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the financials and resource stocks were mitigated by support from the food and cement companies.

For the day, the index dropped 40.33 points or 0.56 percent to finish at 7,178.58.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia dipped 0.37 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga lost 0.45 percent, Bank Central Asia skidded 1.18 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia stumbled 1.75 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison rallied 2.08 percent, Indocement added 0.50 percent, Semen Indonesia spiked 2.06 percent, Indofood Suskes sank 0.80 percent, United Tractors plunged 3.13 percent, Astra International fell 0.35 percent, Energi Mega Persada surged 4.51 percent, Astra Agro Lestari shed 0.56 percent, Aneka Tambang tumbled 1.92 percent, Vale Indonesia slipped 0.38 percent, Timah dropped 0.71 percent, Bumi Resources plummeted 6.37 percent and Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street continues to be negative as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and stayed that way throughout the session.

The Dow plunged 486.29 points or 1.62 percent to finish at 29,590.41, while the NASDAQ tumbled 198.87 points or 1.80 percent to close at 10.867.93 and the S&P 500 sank 64.76 points or 1.72 percent to end at 3,693.23. For the week, the Dow dropped 4.0 percent, the NASDAQ plunged 5.1 percent and the S&P fell 4.7 percent.

Concerns about the outlook for the global economy continued to weigh on Wall Street after aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world. Traders remain concerned the central banks' efforts to combat elevated inflation will push the global economy into a recession.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 75 basis points earlier this week and signaled more significant rate hikes later this year.

While the Fed's projections pointed to an eventually tapering of rate hikes by next year, traders worry about the outlook for the global economy in the months ahead.

Crude oil prices fell sharply on Friday, pushing the most active crude futures contract to their lowest close in about seven months. Weak outlook for energy demand due to a possible global recession outweighed concerns about tight supplies. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended lower by $4.75 or 5.7 percent at $78.74 a barrel, the lowest settlement since January.