The Indonesia stock market has closed lower now in three straight trading days, shedding more than 75 points or 1.8 percent in that span. The Jakarta Composite Index ended just above the 4,315-point plateau, and now investors are expected to go bargain hunting when the market opens on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed, with positive economic news from Europe and Asia offset by soft data from the United States. The Asian markets already had a chance to react to much better than expected Chinese trade data. And in Europe, the European Central Bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged at a record low. But the United States saw an increase in initial jobless claims. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were higher, and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The JCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the resource stocks and the automobile producers.
For the day, the index plummeted 45.56 points or 1.04 percent to finish at 4,317.36 after trading between 4,298.61 and 4,377.14.
Among the actives, Astra Agro Lestari dropped 3.22 percent, while Astra International plunged 4.55 percent and Cahaya Kalbar spiked 3.27 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is positive as stocks fluctuated on Thursday but largely maintained a positive bias before ending notably higher. With the gains over the past two days, the major averages have more than offset the weakness seen earlier this week. The S&P 500 ended the day at a new five-year closing high.
The strength was partly due to some upbeat Chinese trade data, as the nation’s trade surplus swelled to $31.6 billion in December from $19.6 billion in November. Chinese exports rose 14.1 percent on year, the fastest rate of growth in seven months. Chinese imports also saw 6 percent annual growth.
Traders also reacted positively to news out of Europe, where the European Central Bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged at a record low. ECB President Mario Draghi said economic weakness in the euro area is expected to extend into the new year but said economic activity should gradually recover later in 2013.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Labor Department showing that initial jobless claims rose to 371,000 in the week ended January 5 from the previous week’s revised figure of 367,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 362,000 from the 372,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The major U.S. averages were higher on Thursday as the Dow rose 80.71 points or 0.6 percent to finish at 13,471.22, while the NASDAQ climbed 15.95 points or 0.5 percent to end at 3,121.76 and the S&P 500 advanced 11.10 points or 0.8 percent to close at 1,472.12.
In economic news, Indonesia’s central bank maintained its key interest rate as widely expected by economists, for the eleventh consecutive month. The bank decided to hold the key rate at a record low 5.75 percent as the rate is consistent with the 2013 inflation target of 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent.
Going forward, the bank said it will strengthen monetary and macroprudential policy mix and strengthen coordination with the government to manage domestic demand and sustainability of economic growth. The bank expects economic growth to rise in 2013 and 2014 from an estimated 6.3 percent in 2012.
by RTT Staff Writer
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