Indonesia Bourse May Give Up Support At 7,200 Points

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, shedding almost 110 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 7,215-point plateau and it's expected to extend its slide again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the financial, food and resource companies.

For the day, the index slumped 94.11 points or 1.29 percent to finish at the daily low of 7,214.56 after peaking at 7,318.78.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga sank 0.84 percent, while Bank Mandiri shed 0.78 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 0.40 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia dipped 0.20 percent, Bank Central Asia lost 0.49 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia tumbled 1.75 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison jumped 1.82 percent, Indocement rose 0.36 percent, Semen Indonesia retreated 1.63 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur fell 0.32 percent, United Tractors declined 1.61 percent, Astra International slumped 1.49 percent, Energi Mega Persada plunged 4.23 percent, Astra Agro Lestari skidded 1.14 percent, Aneka Tambang tanked 1.33 percent, Jasa Marga dipped 0.22 percent, Vale Indonesia rallied 1.87 percent, Timah surrendered 2.92 percent, Bumi Resources stumbled 1.83 percent and Bank Maybank Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened flat on Thursday but quickly fell into the red and stayed that way, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 207.33 points or 0.47 percent to finish at 43,750.86, while the NASDAQ slumped 123.07 points or 0.64 percent to close at 19,107.65 and the S&P 500 sank 36.21 points or 0.60 percent to end at 5,949.17.

The weakness that emerged on Wall Street late in the session came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank does not "need to be in a hurry to lower rates" due to the strength of the economy.

Powell's remarks came as the latest batch of U.S. economy data generated some uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates after the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly edged lower last week.

While the Fed is still widely expected to lower interest rates by a quarter point next month, there is some concern that sticky inflation will lead the central bank to slow the pace of its rate cuts in early 2025.

Oil futures settled higher on Thursday, supported by data showing a drop in gasoline stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December closed up $0.27 or about 0.4 percent at $68.70 a barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will provide October trade data later today; in September, imports were up 8.55 percent on year and exports rose an annual 6.44 percent for a trade surplus of IDR3.26 billion.