Soft Start Anticipated For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market headed south again on Friday, one session after halting the two-day slide in which it had slipped more than 20 points or 0.3 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 6,700-point plateau and it may extend its losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to lower, with strength from crude oil prices offset by likely profit taking. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the cement companies and mixed performances from the financials and resource companies.

For the day, the index slid 15.24 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 6,698.55.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga retreated 1.94 percent, while Bank Mandiri collected 0.49 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia tumbled 2.08 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia sank 0.82 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia gathered 0.45 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison climbed 1.11 percent, Indocement declined 1.76 percent, Semen Indonesia stumbled 1.23 percent, Indofood Suskes plunged 2.35 percent, United Tractors slumped 1.08 percent, Astra International fell 0.36 percent, Energi Mega Persada surrendered 2.68 percent, Astra Agro Lestari strengthened 1.34 percent, Aneka Tambang advanced 0.98 percent, Timah gained 0.51 percent, Bumi Resources plummeted 3.48 percent and Bank Central Asia and Vale Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street ends up negative as the major averages opened higher on Friday but slumped late to finish in the red.

The Dow shed 108.98 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 34,299.12, while the NASDAQ dropped 93.23 points or 0.68 percent to close at 13,689.57 and the S&P 500 sank 16.25 points or 0.37 percent to end at 4,409.59.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 3.3 percent, the S&P 500 jumped2.6 percent and the Dow advanced 1.3 percent.

The late-day weakness on Wall Street reflected profit taking as traders looked to cash in after the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit their best closing levels in over a year, while the Dow set a new six-month closing high.

In economic news, inflation expectations edged down to 3.0 percent in June from 3.1 percent in May, again staying within the narrow 2.9-3.1 percent range. The decrease in inflation expectations may add to recent investor optimism that the Federal Reserve won't follow through on its plan to continue raising interest rates.

Crude oil prices climbed higher on Friday amid hopes about higher refinery demand and that further stimulus in China will help boost growth in the world's second largest economy. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures ended higher by $1.16 or 1.6 percent at $71.78 a barrel. WTI crude futures gained 2.3 percent in the week.