Higher Open Called For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, dropping almost 75 points or 1 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,715-point plateau although it's tipped to open in the green on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher, likely driven by the latest earnings news. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

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

For the day, the index sank 71.02 points or 0.91 percent to finish at the daily low of 7,716.55 after peaking at 7,794.86.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga collected 0.52 percent, while Bank Mandiri retreated 1.41 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia slumped 1.14 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia dropped 0.88 percent, Bank Central Asia added 0.47 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia sank 0.82 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison declined 1.21 percent, Indocement skidded 0.96 percent, Semen Indonesia rose 0.23 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur gathered 0.33 percent, United Tractors shed 0.56 percent, Astra International lost 0.47 percent, Energi Mega Persada plunged 5.92 percent, Astra Agro Lestari climbed 1.10 percent, Aneka Tambang tumbled 1.82 percent, Jasa Marga slid 0.62 percent, Vale Indonesia surrendered 1.90 percent, Timah dipped 0.37 percent, Bumi Resources fell 0.68 percent and Bank Maybank Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday and finished the same way.

The Dow dropped 140.59 points or 0.33 percent to finish at 42,374.36, while the NASDAQ climbed 138.83 points or 0.76 percent to close at 18,415.49 and the S&P 500 rose 12.44 points or 0.21 percent to end at 5,809.86.

The strength on the tech-heavy NASDAQ was spurred by strong quarterly earnings from the likes of Tesla (TSLA) and UPS (UPS).

On the other hand, the Dow was weighed by weak quarterly earnings news from IBM (IBM), Honeywell (HON) and Boeing (BA).

Oil prices fell on Thursday, extending losses from the previous session as concerns about excess supply and weak crude consumption in China weighed. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended down $0.58 or 0.8 percent at $70.19 a barrel.