Higher Open Anticipated For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last nine trading days since the end of the five-day losing streak in which it had tumbled more than 220 points or 3.1 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just beneath the 7,250-point plateau and it may extend its gains on Tuesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on optimism over upcoming earnings, especially among the technology stocks. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Monday following a mixed performance from the financial shares and weakness from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index added 20.53 points or 0.28 percent to finish at the daily high of 7,247.93 after trading as low as 7,194.95.

Among the actives, Bank Mandiri shed 0.38 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 0.70 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia added 0.45 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia was down 0.43 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison tanked 2.76 percent, Indocement tumbled 1.91 percent, Semen Indonesia dropped 0.83 percent, Indofood Suskes lost 0.39 percent, United Tractors plummeted 3.43 percent, Astra International plunged 2.34 percent, Energi Mega Persada crashed 5.17 percent, Astra Agro Lestari fell 0.35 percent, Vale Indonesia skidded 0.98 percent, Timah slumped 3.12 percent, Bumi Resources stumbled 2.13 percent and Bank Central Asia, Aneka Tambang, Bank CIMB Niaga and Kalbe Farma were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened solidly higher, with the Dow and S&P hitting fresh record intraday highs; they faded as the day progressed but still ended well in the green.

The Dow climbed 138.01 points or 0.36 percent to finish at 38,001.81, while the NASDAQ gained 49.32 points or 0.32 percent to close at 15,360.29 and the S&P 500 rose 10.62 points or 0.22 percent to end at 4,850.43.

The early strength on Wall Street came on continued optimism about the outlook for earnings from major tech firms, with Intel (INTC), IBM Corp. (IBM) and Netflix (NFLX) among the companies due to release their quarterly results this week.

In economic news, the Conference Board noted a modest decrease in its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in December, continuing to signal underlying weakness in the U.S. economy.

Oil prices rose sharply on Monday amid concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East, and extreme cold weather in North America. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for February settled at $75.19 a barrel, gaining $1.78 or about 2.4 percent.