Soft Start Seen For Indonesia Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market on Tuesday snapped the three-day slide in which it had retreated almost 200 points or 2.9 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 7,050-point plateau although it may head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast is cautious ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later today. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and little changed, and the oversold Asian markets figure to see little movement ahead of the rate decision.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares and cement stocks, while the resource companies were mixed.

For the day, the index advanced 54.44 points or 0.78 percent to finish at the daily high of 7,049.88 after moving as low as 6,932.71.

Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia fell 0.41 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga shed 0.49 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia perked 0.30 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.68 percent, Bank Mandiri climbed 1.23 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia added 0.46 percent, Indosat soared 3.85 percent, Indocement advanced 0.82 percent, Semen Indonesia surged 4.20 percent, Indofood Suskes improved 0.73 percent, United Tractors rallied 2.85 percent, Astra International sank 0.71 percent, Energi Mega Persada skyrocketed 11.11 percent, Bakrie Sumatera Plantations spiked 2.54 percent, Astra Agro Lestari lost 0.46 percent, Aneka Tambang plunged 3.54 percent, Timah strengthened 1.09 percent and Bumi Resources and Vale Indonesia were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is murky after the major averages shook off a higher open on Friday. The Dow and S&P quickly turned lower and stayed that way, while the NASDAQ bounced back and forth across the line to finish higher.

The Dow dropped 151.91 points or 0.50 percent to finish at 30,364.83, while the NASDAQ added 19.12 points or 0.18 percent to close at 10,828.35 and the S&P 500 dipped 14.15 points or 0.38 percent to end at 3,735.48.

The choppy trade on Wall Street comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today.

The Fed is expected to hike interest rates by 50 basis points, although forecasts are suggesting a 75-bp increase.

In economic news, the Labor Department said producer prices increased on a monthly basis but eased off a 21-year high annually.

Crude oil futures drifted lower Tuesday on reports of a likely proposal to impose a federal surtax on oil companies to curb rising inflation. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for July ended lower by $2.00 or 1.7 percent at $118.93 a barrel.

Closer to home, Indonesia will provide May numbers for imports, exports and trade balance later today. Imports are expected to surged 34.32 percent on year, accelerating from 21.97 percent in April. Exports are called higher by an annual 39.35 percent, slowing from 47.76 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $3.5 billion, down from 7.56 billion a month earlier.