Indonesia Shares May Take Further Damage On Monday

(RTTNews) - Ahead of Friday's holiday for the birth of the prophet Muhammad, the Indonesia stock market had halted the two-day winning streak in which it climbed almost 140 points or 1.8 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 7,865-point plateau and it's likely to extend those losses on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about the health of the American economy. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are also expected to open to the downside.

The JCI finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the resource and cement stocks, while the financial shares came in mixed.

For the day, the index shed 18.51 points or 0.23 percent to finish at 7,867.35 after trading between 7,855.74 and 7,899.80.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga advanced 0.88 percent, while Bank Mandiri strengthened 1.30 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia climbed 1.20 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia dropped 0.91 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.31 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia sank 0.74 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison improved 0.77 percent, Indocement retreated 1.43 percent, Semen Indonesia shed 0.71 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur tanked 2.27 percent, United Tractors dropped 0.98 percent, Energi Mega Persada plummeted 6.25 percent, Astra Agro Lestari added 0.68 percent, Aneka Tambang stumbled 2.59 percent, Vale Indonesia lost 0.76 percent, Timah plunged 3.29 percent, Bumi Resources slumped 0.88 percent and Astra International was unchanged.

The lead from the Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the day in the red.

The Dow stumbled 220.44 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 45,400.86, while the NASDAQ fell 7.31 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,700.39 and the S&P 500 sank 20.58 points or 0.32 percent to end at 6,481.50. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P rose 0.3 percent and the Dow dipped 0.3 percent.

The early downturn on Wall Street came as traders digested a closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected U.S. job growth in the month of August.

Traders initially reacted positively to the report amid optimism the data will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month. But buying interest quickly waned amid concerns about the outlook for the economy.

Crude oil moved sharply lower on Friday as oversupply concerns grew stronger ahead of OPEC's Sunday meeting, where the group did as expected and boosted output. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery dropped $1.64 or 2.58 percent to $61.84 per barrel.