Activity on JSX is likely to remain quiet this week
JAKARTA (JP): Activity on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) is likely to remain minimal this week as most fund managers are still on their year-end holiday, brokers and securities analysts believe.
But some analysts said that a sprinkling of local fund managers might enter the market for superficial purposes, to make their year-end financial reports look better.
"Most fund managers are still on holiday and even if there is some movement, it will be purely driven by window dressing," a broker with a local firm said.
The market will be open only for three days this week --- on Monday, Tuesday and Friday --- it will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday for the New Year holiday.
"The overall sentiment through the end of the year will remain bleak," the dealer said.
Others said that concerns over the direction of the rupiah would continue to cast a shadow over trading activities in the coming week.
The spot rupiah ended stronger at 5,150/5,250 against the U.S. dollar in Jakarta Friday compared with an opening of 5,800/5,900 in the morning session.
The rupiah broke the psychological 6,000 barrier level to hit an all-time low of 6,200 on Wednesday as corporate borrowers snapped up the U.S. dollar to pay their maturing foreign debts.
Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad expressed optimism last week that the rupiah would strengthen against the dollar next year because the currency had depreciated far below its real value.
"I'm also optimistic that the rupiah will continue to strengthen next year," he said.
The value of the rupiah has declined by about 60 percent against the American dollar since early July when the currency turmoil began to hit the country.
"I think the rupiah is the key factor for the recovery of the economy," Mohammad Syahrial, head of research of Pentasena Securities told The Jakarta Post last week.
The JSX Composite price index closed 117.44 points higher to 396.53 on Wednesday from 378.79 in the previous week's last trading day
The average daily turnover fell by 27 percent to just 407.37 million shares last week from 560.40 million shares changing hands in the previous week.
While the average daily value fell by 32 percent to Rp 398.63 billion last week from Rp 578.27 billion in the previous week.
Brokers said that they had anticipated such a decline in both volume and value because there were only three trading days last week.
Securities analysts predicted that the main price index would not go higher than 400 by the end of this year.
Most blue chip stocks ended higher last week with telecommunications firm PT Telkom rising by Rp 50 to Rp 2,950, Indosat by Rp 425 o Rp 9,900, cigarette maker Sampoerna by Rp 25 to Rp 4,100 and Gudang Garam by Rp 25 to Rp 8,075.
While Bank International Indonesia shed Rp 25 to Rp 400, Bank Negara Indonesia and BDNI remained unchanged at Rp 575 and Rp 350 respectively last week. (aly)