Indonesia Shares Expected To Open Under Pressure On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Thursday ended the three-day slide in which it had dropped more than 130 points or 1.9 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 6,850-point plateau and it's looking at a soft start again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on concerns over the health of the financial system and the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are predicted to open in similar fashion.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Thursday following mixed performances from the financial shares, resource stocks and cement companies.

For the day, the index gained 31.30 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 6,844.03 after trading between 6,780.09 and 6,846.12.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga spiked 2.02 percent, while Bank Mandiri dropped 0.96 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia declined 1.85 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.84 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia advanced 0.98 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison strengthened 1.34 percent, Semen Indonesia soared 3.48 percent, Indofood Suskes and Astra International both fell 0.38 percent, United Tractors tumbled 2.10 percent, Energi Mega Persada plunged 2.70 percent, Astra Agro Lestari retreated 1.63 percent, Aneka Tambang added 0.47 percent, Vale Indonesia jumped 1.81 percent, Timah skidded 1.00 percent, Bumi Resources sank 0.87 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia, Indocement and Jasa Marga were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower and remained in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 286.50 points or 0.86 percent to finish at 33,127.74, while the NASDAQ dropped 58.93 points or 0.49 percent to close at 11,966.40 and the S&P 500 sank 29.53 points or 0.72 percent to end at 4,061.22.

The continued weakness on Wall Street partly reflects ongoing concerns about turmoil among regional banks after lenders PacWest Bancorp (PACW) and First Horizon (FHN) said they were reviewing their options.

Continued uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates also weighed following the Federal Reserve's tenth straight rate hike on Wednesday. While the Fed's accompanying statement seemed to suggest the central bank plans to pause its rate hiking cycle, Fed Chair Jerome Powell clouded the outlook with a "data-dependent approach" to future monetary policy decisions.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly more than expected last week. Also, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.

Crude oil futures pared early losses and settled just slightly lower on Thursday, due largely to some short-covering and speculative buying. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down $0.04 at $68.56 a barrel, recovering well from a low of $63.57 a barrel.