Steady Start Seen For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after ending the four-day losing streak in which it had dropped almost 190 points or 2.5 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,180-point plateau and it's likely to see limited movement again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with mild downside likely from the oil and technology stocks. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets also figure to see little movement.

The JCI finished slightly lower on Wednesday following losses from the cement companies and mixed performances from the financial shares and resource stocks.

For the day, the index lost 15.38 points or 0.21 percent to finish at 7,180.33 after trading between 7,171.27 and 7,229.71.

Among the actives, Bank Mandiri shed 0.40 percent, while Bank Central Asia jumped 1.51 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia lost 0.69 percent, Bank Maybank Indonesia dropped 0.91 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison tanked 2.86 percent, Indocement stumbled 1.79 percent, Semen Indonesia retreated 1.63 percent, United Tractors rose 0.28 percent, Astra International added 0.60 percent, Energi Mega Persada rallied 2.36 percent, Astra Agro Lestari sank 0.80 percent, Aneka Tambang fell 0.34 percent, Jasa Marga advanced 0.88 percent, Vale Indonesia perked 0.27 percent, Timah declined 1.49 percent, Bumi Resources slumped 2.00 percent and Bank CIMB Niaga, Bank Danamon Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia and Indofood Sukses Makmur were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages spent most of Wednesday's trade in negative territory before a late push saw them finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 139.53 points or 0.32 percent to finish at 43,408.47, while the NASDAQ slipped 21.33 points or 0.11 percent to close at 18,966.14 and the S&P 500 perked 0.13 points or 0.00 percent to end at 5,917.11.

The late rally was fueled by optimism ahead of the release of earnings results from tech darling Nvidia (NVDA); the results, which came after the markets closed, were solid but fell short of their lofty expectations.

The volatility seen late in the session also came as trading activity was somewhat subdued amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves as they kept an eye on developments overseas amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

Oil prices drifted lower on Wednesday on weak demand concerns and data showing an increase in U.S. crude inventories last week. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for December slipped $0.52 or 0.75 percent at $68.87 a barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will provide Q3 numbers for current account later today; in the three months prior, the current account deficit was IDR0.6 billion, with a GDP percentage of 0.9 percent.