Indonesia Shares May Take Further Damage On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, falling almost 20 points or 0.3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 8,370-point plateau and it's likely to open under water again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished barely lower on Friday following weakness from the food and telecom companies and mixed performances from the financial shares, cement companies and resource stocks.

For the day, the index eased 1.56 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 8,370.44 after trading between 8,360.94 and 8,417.13.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga shed 0.57 percent, while Bank Mandiri climbed 1.06 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia fell 0.39 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia sank 0.68 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.60 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia improved 0.78 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison stumbled 2.86 percent, Semen Indonesia surrendered 2.26 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur dropped 0.70 percent, United Tractors lost 0.71 percent, Astra International added 0.39 percent, Astra Agro Lestari skidded 0.96 percent, Aneka Tambang surged 5.19 percent, Vale Indonesia slumped 1.62 percent, Timah rallied 3.58 percent, Bumi Resources tumbled 1.79 percent and Indocement and Energi Mega Persada were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.