Indonesia Stock Market May Extend Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved higher in three straight sessions, advancing almost 150 points or 3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 5,050-point plateau and it may add to its winnings on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, although they're likely to see bargain hunting after heavy losses last week. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed to higher and the oversold Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Friday as gains from the food and financial sectors were limited by weakness among the technology and energy companies.

For the day, the index added 20.17 points or 0.40 percent to finish at the daily high of 5,050.43 after trading as low as 4,925.10.

The lead from Wall Street is mixed with a touch of upside as the S&P 500 and NASDAQ opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the day, while the Dow opened lower, peeked above the line for a bit but then faded to finish with in the red.

The Dow slumped 237.37 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 51,285.73, while the NASDAQ jumped 264.42 points or 1.09 percent to close at 24,579.42 and the S&P 500 added 23.13 points or 0.31 percent to end at 7,376.86. For the week, the NASDAQ plunged 3.4 percent, the S&P 500 sank 2.7 percent and the Dow slid by 0.9 percent.

The rebound on Wall Street reflected bargain hunting following Thursday's substantial pullback, which dragged the tech-heavy NASDAQ down to its lowest closing level in over six months.

Semiconductor stocks led the way higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index spiking 4.2 percent, while strength was also seen among networking, gold, airline and oil stocks.

In U.S. economic news, a closely watched report from the Labor Department showed employment in the U.S. increased far more than expected in October, which adds to the case for a rate hike in the Federal Reserve's December meeting.

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday on continued signals of war risk after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to rule out renewing attacks on Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $0.46 or 0.51 percent at $90.98 per barrel.