Ahead of Friday’s holiday, the Indonesia stock market had tracked lower in back-to-back sessions – surrendering almost 120 points or 2 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 5,950-point plateau, although it may tick higher on Monday as it catches up on missed positive sentiment.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft thanks to political concerns in the United States, although a spike in crude oil prices should limit the downside. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.
The JCI finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the food and resource sectors.
For the day, the index plummeted 109.23 points or 1.80 percent to finish at the daily low of 5,952.14 after peaking at 6,058.60. There were 215 decliners and 131 gainers, with 120 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Bank Pan Indonesia skyrocketed 13.68 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia plummeted 5.19 percent, Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food plunged 5.19 percent, Jasa Marga tumbled 1.92 percent, Lotte Chemical skidded 1.62 percent, XL Axiata dropped 1.60 percent, Voksel Electric shed 0.68 percent, Bumi Resources retreated 1.96 percent, Vale Indonesia lost 0.72 percent, Indofood fell 3.62 percent and Bank MNC Internasional and Bank Mandiri were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as stocks opened sharply lower on Friday. They recovered in afternoon trade but still finished firmly in the red as they backed off recent record closing highs.
The Dow slipped 40.76 points or 0.17 percent to 24,231.59, while the NASDAQ fell 26.39 points or 0.38 percent to 6,847.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 5.36 points or 0.20 percent to 2,642.22. For the week, the NASDAQ slid 0.6 percent, the Dow surged 2.9 percent and the S&P jumped 1.5 percent.
The late-morning sell-off came on news that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s election.
However, stocks regained ground as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., declared that Republican leaders have won over enough reluctant lawmakers to pass their tax reform bill.
In economic news, the Commerce Department reported a bigger than expected increase in construction spending in October, while the Institute for Supply Management noted a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in manufacturing activity in November.
Crude oil futures rallied Friday after OPEC producers voted to extend supply cuts through 2018. January WTI oil climbed 96 cents or 1.7 percent to $58.36/bbl. Prices dropped 1 percent for the week.
Closer to home, Indonesia will release November inflation data later today, with forecasts expected to show an increase of 0.3 percent on month and 3.45 percent on year following the 0.01 percent monthly increase and the 3.58 percent yearly gain in October.