Renewed Support Likely For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market turned emphatically lower again on Tuesday, one day after ending the two-day losing streak in which it had dropped more than 225 points or 4 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 4,900-point plateau although it's likely to rebound on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic on easing oil prices and a rebound among battered technology stocks. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mostly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished sharply lower on Tuesday following losses among the financial shares, infrastructure stocks and agricultural companies.

For the day, the index crashed 192.54 points or 3.78 percent to finish at 4,904.29 after trading between 4,895.60 and 5,143.58.

The lead from Wall Street is a study in contrasts as the NASDAQ and S&P 500 opened higher on Tuesday and stayed that way, while the Dow opened in the red and remained under water throughout the day.

The Dow dropped 197.26 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 51,786.72, while the NASDAQ jumped 207.65 points or 0.83 percent to close at 25,372.01 and the S&P 500 added 27.52 points or 0.36 percent to end at 7,568.92.

The pullback by the Dow reflected a big decline by shares of Apple (AAPL), which slumped 1.9 percent after it posted increased quarterly revenue and profits but forecast slightly below consensus gross margin for the current quarter.

Semiconductor stocks helped lead the tech sector higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging by 2.6 percent after ending the previous session at a six-month closing low.

Computer hardware, software and networking stocks also saw considerable strength following recent weakness.

Crude oil prices turned lower on Tuesday amid rising expectations on a possible settlement between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.52 or 0.54 percent at $95.94 per barrel.