Indonesia Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Wednesday ended the seven-day losing streak in which it had tumbled more than 550 points or 5.1 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,100-point plateau and it's expected to remain in that neighborhood again on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on surging oil prices and uncertainty about the conflict in the Middle East. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the food, telecom and cement sectors, while the financials and resources were mixed. For the day, the index added 28.83 points or 0.41 percent to finish at 7,101.23 after trading between 7,063.99 and 7,126.06. Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga shed 0.59 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia skyrocketed 14.86 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia rose 0.26 percent, Bank Central Asia lost 0.42 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison jumped 1.79 percent, Indocement collected 0.97 percent, Semen Indonesia rallied 2.45 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur and Vale Indonesia both improved 0.37 percent, United Tractors advanced 0.83 percent, Astra International gained 0.41 percent, Energi Mega Persada tumbled 1.71 percent, Astra Agro Lestari slipped 0.31 percent, Aneka Tambang plunged 3.96 percent, Timah dropped 0.82 percent, Bumi Resources climbed 0.88 percent and Bank Mandiri and Bank Rakyat Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is uninspired as the major averages opened lower on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day, finally ending mixed.

The Dow dropped 280.12 points or 0.57 percent to finish at 48,861.81, while the NASDAQ perked 9.44 points or 0.04 percent to close at 24,673.24 and the S&P 500 eased 2.85 points or 0.04 percent to end at 7,135.95.

The lackluster performance on Wall Street came as traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news after the close from big-name tech companies such as Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Traders also kept an eye on the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy announcement, with the central bank announcing its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged in an unusually divided vote.

Crude oil prices surged again on Wednesday as an end to the Middle East war still remains elusive, keeping the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz in place. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $6.79 or 6.79 percent at $106.72 per barrel.