Soft Start Expected For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 40 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 6,900-point plateau although it figures to open in the red on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cloudy on lingering concerns over U.S. trade policy. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished slightly higher on Tuesday following gains from the resource stocks, weakness from the financial shares and a mixed picture from the cement companies.

For the day, the index rose 3.46 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 6,904.39 after trading between 6,885.28 and 6,916.83.

Among the actives, Bank Mandiri shed 0.42 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia sank 0.82 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia dropped 0.75 percent, Bank Central Asia retreated 1.45 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia slumped 0.81 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison strengthened 1.44 percent, Indocement soared 3.79 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur skidded 0.93 percent, United Tractors improved 0.70 percent, Astra International fell 0.43 percent, Energi Mega Persada surged 3.51 percent, Astra Agro Lestari lost 0.86 percent, Aneka Tambang added 0.69 percent, Vale Indonesia tanked 2.92 percent, Timah gained 0.50 percent, Bumi Resources rallied 2.65 percent and Bank CIMB Niaga and Semen Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Tuesday's trade hugging the line, finally ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 165.60 points or 0.37 percent to finish at 44,240.76, while the NASDAQ rose 5.95 points or 0.03 percent to close at 20,418.46 and the S&P 500 dipped 4.46 points or 0.07 percent to end at 6,225.52.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as investors were reluctant to make significant moves amid lingering uncertainty about President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies.

A lack of major U.S. economic data may also have kept some traders on the sidelines ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed minutes may shed light on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the central bank's next meeting on July 29-30. CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 95.3 percent chance the Fed will leave rates unchanged this month.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Tuesday on concerns over disruptions to the oil supply lines due to Houthi attacks. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery closed up by $0.40 at $68.33 per barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will see May numbers for retail sales later today; in April, sales were down 0.3 percent on year.