Mild Upside Seen For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - Ahead of the market holiday for Good Friday, the Indonesia stock market had moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping more than 40 points or 0.6 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 6,790-point plateau although it may tick higher on Monday.

There's not much of a global forecast, as most of the markets in Europe and the United States were closed on Friday for Good Friday. Key U.S. employment data was roughly in line with expectations, suggesting a steady if quiet session.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the resource stocks and a mixed picture from the financial sector.

For the day, the index shed 26.91 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 6,792.77 after trading between 6,786.29 and 6,832.73.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia shed 0.68 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga improved 0.78 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia added 0.54 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.29 percent, Bank Mandiri dropped 0.95 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia perked 0.21 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison skidded 1.10 percent, Indocement jumped 1.80 percent, Indofood Suskes lost 0.40 percent, Astra International retreated 1.25 percent, Energi Mega Persada sank 0.83 percent, Astra Agro Lestari rose 0.30 percent, Vale Indonesia plunged 3.76 percent, Timah tumbled 1.96 percent, Bumi Resources declined 1.52 percent and Aneka Tambang, Semen Indonesia and United Tractors were unchanged.

There is no lead from Wall Street as the stock and oil markets were closed for Good Friday. The big catalyst for the day, however, was the closely watched U.S. jobs report for March.

The Labor Department said that employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with forecasts in March as non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Also, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February; the unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.

The numbers fall in the butter zone, which is to say good enough to dispel fears of an economic slowdown but not so good as the encourage the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable applying another rate hike anytime soon.