Renewed Selling Pressure Expected For Indonesia Shares

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Thursday snapped the three-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 200 points or 2.6 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 8,120-point plateau although it may head south again on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over bad loans in the auto industry. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the food and finance companies, while the cement and resource stocks were mixed.

For the day, the index improved 73.58 points or 0.91 percent to finish at 8,124.76 after trading between 8,030.78 and 8,148.04.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga plunged 3.68 percent, while Bank Mandiri advanced 0.99 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia rallied 2.12 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.69 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia improved 0.86 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison plummeted 4.68 percent, Indocement spiked 2.59 percent, Semen Indonesia cratered 5.47 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur strengthened 2.54 percent, United Tractors perked 0.10 percent, Astra International shed 0.43 percent, Energi Mega Persada accelerated 2.50 percent, Astra Agro Lestari jumped 2.55 percent, Aneka Tambang increased 0.88 percent, Vale Indonesia sank 0.67 percent and Timah, Bumi Resources and Bank Danamon Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but dropped into the red midday and stayed there for the balance of the session.

The Dow stumbled 301.07 points or 0.65 percent to finish at 45,952.24, while the NASDAQ clumped 107.54 points or 0.47 percent to close at 22.562.54 and the S&P 500 sank 41.99 points or 0.63 percent to end at 6,629.07.

The weakness that materialized on Wall Street was attributed to the emergence of concerns about bad loans following the recent bankruptcies of two auto industry-related companies First Brands and Tricolor Holdings.

Earlier in the day, the tech sector rose on upbeat earnings news from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM), which produces chips for Nvidia (NVDA). TSM reported a bigger than expected surge in Q3 profits amid strong AI chip demand and raised its forecast for revenue growth.

On the U.S. economic front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia noted a substantial pullback by its reading on regional manufacturing activity in the month of October.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Thursday after the Energy Information said that crude oil inventories in the U.S. increased much more than expected, sparking demand concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude Oil for November delivery was down $0.97 or 1.66 percent at $57.30 per barrel.