Indonesia Bourse May Give Up Support At 7,500 Points

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in two straight sessions, dropping nearly 100 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,540-point plateau and it's expected to open in the red again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is fairly flat ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished slightly lower on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares and resource stocks.

For the day, the index slipped 19.43 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 7,543.83 after trading between 7,504.41 and 7,581.33.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga slid 0.27 percent, while Bank Mandiri climbed 1.08 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 1.15 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia added 0.47 percent, Bank Central Asia shed 0.48 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia fell 0.40 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison advanced 0.96 percent, Indocement jumped 1.84 percent, Semen Indonesia soared 3.59 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur rose 0.35 percent, United Tractors eased 0.09 percent, Astra International rallied 1.94 percent, Energi Mega Persada plunged 5.04 percent, Jasa Marga gained 0.41 percent, Vale Indonesia improved 0.47 percent, Timah dropped 0.85 percent, Bumi Resources plummeted 3.62 percent and Bank Maybank Indonesia, Astra Agro Lestari and Aneka Tambang were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and largely remained in the red throughout the day, closing with modest losses.

The Dow dropped 184.93 points or 0.44 percent to finish at 42,011.59, while the NASDAQ eased 6.65 points or 0.04 percent to close at 17,918.47 and the S&P 500 fell 9.60 points or 0.17 percent to end at 5,699.94.

The lack of direction on Wall Street came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Labor Department's highly anticipated monthly jobs report on Friday.

The data could impact the outlook for the U.S. economy as well as expectations regarding how aggressively the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.

Traders also kept an eye on developments in the Middle East, where an escalating conflict has contributed to a sharp increase by the price of crude oil.

Oil prices moved up sharply on Thursday thanks to tensions in the Middle East, with the war between Israel and Iran raising concerns about supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for November ended up $3.61 or 5.2 percent at $73.71 a barrel.