Indonesian end lower, led by selling in Astra International

Indonesian end lower, led by selling in Astra International

Dow Jones/Jakarta

Indonesian shares ended lower on Thursday, led by selling of
car maker Astra International on concerns of a possible drop in
sales, while higher oil prices hurt overall sentiment, dealers
said.

Lingering worries over rising domestic interest rates and weak
rupiah also kept sentiment very weak, they said.

"Many investors sold on fears higher oil prices could affect
the nation's economy as a whole," said a trader with a foreign
securities firm.

The Jakarta Stock Exchange's Composite Index ended down 9.409
points, or 0.8 percent , at 1108.403.

Decliners led gainers 92 to 30, with 59 stocks unchanged.
Volume was 1.4 billion shares valued at Rp 1.2 trillion,
compared with one billion shares valued at Rp 781 billion on
Wednesday.

Astra International dropped 3.9 percent to Rp 12,200 on
worries that rising interest rates could discourage consumers
from buying cars on credit, and the weaker rupiah could increase
the cost of imported raw materials.

"These two factors could hurt Astra's sales," said a trader
with Paramitra Securities. He said more expensive imported raw
materials may force Astra to increase the prices of its cars and
motorcycles.

Benchmark one-month Bank Indonesia notes rose Wednesday to
8.44 percent from 8.25 percent previously.

Dealers said investors to continued to sell banking blue chips
on lingering worries that higher interest rates could reduce
banks' net interest margin and bottom lines.

Bank Danamon lost 3.9 percent to end at Rp 5,050, while Bank
Mandiri ended down 0.7 percent at Rp 1,480 and Bank Central Asia
lost 1.4 percent to Rp 3,475.

Also lower were shares in Indonesian Satellite, which lost 2.8
percent to close the session at Rp 5,300, on worries the weaker
rupiah could the company's debt services. Indosat has sizable
dollar-denominated debts.

Dealers said they expect the market to trade Lower Friday on
further selling of bank stocks.

The Indonesian rupiah was steady on Thursday, ending off an
earlier low on suspected intervention by the central bank,
dealers said.

The dollar closed at Rp 9,795, barely changed from Rp 9,790 on
Wednesday. The rupiah hit an intraday low of 9,834.

"Several state-owned banks sold the dollar at the 9,830-level
to help the rupiah," said a trader with a local bank. He also
attributed the rebound of the rupiah to profit taking after the
dollar's recent gains.

Dealers said the government's move to directly supply U.S.
dollars to the state-owned petroleum firm Pertamina (PTM.YY)
reduced the trade volume by almost 25 percent , decreasing the
pressure to the rupiah.

The government's direct cash injection into Pertamina is aimed
at easing the impact on the rupiah from the company's massive
appetite for dollars to fund oil imports.

"The rupiah however failed to continue its uptrend movement as
fresh bids from local companies to repay debt remained healthy,"
said another trader with a foreign bank.

The dollar will likely trade in a range of Rp 9,750 to
Rp 9,850 on Friday, dealers said.