Lower Open Tipped For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in consecutive trading days, plummeting almost 750 points or 9 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 8,230-point plateau and it may continue on Friday to be troubled by transparency issues.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky amidst profit taking and contrasting earnings news. The European and U.S. markets were mixed with a touch of weakness, and the Asian markets figure to follow suit.

The JCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the telecom, cement and resource sectors, although the financial shares offered support.

For the day, the index tumbled 88.35 points or 1.06 percent to finish at 8,232.20 after trading between 7,481.99 and 8,296.94.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga jumped 1.68 percent, while Bank Mandiri vaulted 1.54 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia shed 0.45 percent, Bank Central Asia rallied 2.49 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia surged 6.64 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison expanded 1.82 percent, Indocement plunged 6.47 percent, Semen Indonesia stumbled 3.20 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur skidded 1.09 percent, United Tractors tanked 2.20 percent, Astra International soared 4.86 percent, Energi Mega Persada cratered 14.79 percent, Astra Agro Lestari slumped 1.35 percent, Aneka Tambang tumbled 2.26 percent, Vale Indonesia surrendered 4.31 percent, Timah fell 0.60 percent, Bumi Resources crashed 14.97 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia was unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Thursday and then mostly hugged the line before ending mixed.

The Dow rose 55.96 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 49,071.56, while the NASDAQ slumped 172.33 points or 0.72 percent to end at 23,685.12 and the S&P 500 dipped 9.02 points or 0.13 percent to close at 6,969.01.

The early sell-off on Wall Street came amid a steep drop by shares of Microsoft (MSFT) after the company reported slowing cloud computing growth in its fiscal second quarter and provided disappointing third quarter guidance.

Profit taking may also have contributed to the early weakness after the S&P 500 briefly peeked above the 7,000 level for the first time during Wednesday's session.

A strong performance by shares of Meta Platforms (META) may have limited the downside after the Facebook parent reported better than expected fourth quarter results and forecast first quarter revenues above estimates.

Crude oil prices spiked on Thursday as Iran shrugged off U.S. threats to negotiate or face attack, causing concerns over possible supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $2.23 or 3.53 percent at $65.44 per barrel.