Higher Open Called For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished higher in two of three trading days since the end of the two-day slide in which it had slipped almost 20 points or 0.3 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 8,400-point plateau and it's expected to see further upside on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with better-than-expected earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) expected to fuel the markets. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the resource and cement stocks, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index collected 44.65 points or 0.53 percent to finish at 8,406.58 after trading between 8,375.58 and 8,426.63.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga retreated 1.37 percent, while Bank Mandiri strengthened 1.25 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia and Astra International both lost 0.39 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.89 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia improved 0.76 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison spiked 3.41 percent, Indocement accelerated 3.35 percent, Semen Indonesia surged 6.69 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur rose 0.36 percent, United Tractors perked 0.18 percent, Energi Mega Persada jumped 2.17 percent, Astra Agro Lestari expanded 1.30 percent, Aneka Tambang fell 0.33 percent, Timah climbed 1.97 percent, Bumi Resources soared 6.54 percent and Bank Negara Indonesia and Vale Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day before ending with modest gains.

The Dow added 47.03 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 46,138.77, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.38 points or 0.59 percent to end at 22,564.23 and the S&P 500 gained 24.84 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,642.16.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the significant weakness of the past few sessions. The major averages slumped to their lowest closing levels in a month on Tuesday on lingering concerns about a potential AI bubble.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of earnings news Nvidia after the close of Wednesday's trading.

Stocks continued to show a lack of direction after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil tumbled on Wednesday, with various data points reinforcing oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $1.22 or 2.01 percent at $59.52 per barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will provide Q3 numbers for its current account later today; in the three months prior, the current account deficit was IDR6.7 billion.