Gloomy days to continue

JAKARTA (JP): The bearish trading at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) would continue until next year, JSX president Cyrill Noerhadi said yesterday.

Cyrill said the daily transaction value, which dropped by about 40 percent to about Rp 300 billion (US$84.50 million) since August from Rp 500 billion in July, would continue to drop next year due to the currency crisis.

Speaking to journalists following the JSX's extraordinary shareholders' meeting, Cyrill said that the JSX management had to wait until Nov. 4 before it would be known whether the JSX office would be relocated or not from the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in South Jakarta

"The choices are to stay in the current building with a higher rental cost or move out and build another new office building," Cyrill said.

He said that the JSX management had allocated around Rp 10.9 billion to pay for its office space in the JSX building.

"The rupiah depreciation has caused problems for the JSX management since the company has had to pay for the office space in U.S. dollars," he said. (aly)