Indonesia Shares May Find Traction On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping almost 55 points or 0.8 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,140-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat on solid earnings news and support from crude oil. The European and U.S. markets finished higher and the Asian bourses are expected to continue that trend.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares and cement companies and a mixed performance from the resource stocks.

For the day, the index sank 39.42 points or 0.55 percent to finish at the daily low of 7,140.91 after peaking at 7,209.36.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga retreated 1.69 percent, while Bank Mandiri slumped 1.20 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia tanked 2.68 percent, Bank Central Asia surrendered 2.24 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia tumbled 1.85 percent, Bank Maybank Indonesia dropped 0.92 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison surged 5.04 percent, Semen Indonesia shed 0.55 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur declined 2.24 percent, United Tractors advanced 0.95 percent, Astra International stumbled 2.20 percent, Astra Agro Lestari fell 0.40 percent, Aneka Tambang rallied 1.36 percent, Jasa Marga added 0.44 percent, Vale Indonesia skidded 1.08 percent, Timah plunged 2.26 percent, Bumi Resources plummeted 2.72 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia, Indocement and Energi Mega Persada were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is positive as the major averages opened slightly lower on Thursday but gradually moved higher and finished in the green.

The Dow rallied 461.88 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 43,870.35, while the NASDAQ rose 6.28 points or 0.03 percent to close at 18,972.42 and the S&P 500 advanced 31.60 points or 0.53 percent to end at 5,948.71.

The sharp increase by the Dow came amid strong gains by IBM Corp. (IBM), Sherwin-Williams (SHW) and Salesforce (CRM).

The NASDAQ showed a lack of direction as traders tracked the performance of AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which reported better than expected third quarter earnings and revenues - but some traders expressed concerns about slowing revenue growth.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in over six months last week. Also, the Conference Board' leading economic index fell more than expected in October

Oil prices climbed higher Thursday as escalating geopolitical tensions due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine outweighed recent data showing robust supply in the market. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December closed up $1.35 or 1.96 percent at $70.10 a barrel.