Jakarta shares down on weak rupiah, power outage
Jakarta shares down on weak rupiah, power outage
Dow Jones, Jakarta
Indonesian shares ended lower on Thursday, hurt by lingering worries that the rupiah may continue to weaken due to rising U.S. dollar demand from local companies for hedging purposes, dealers said.
They said the high domestic interest rate and news about power outage in some parts of Java and Bali islands also spurred investors, mostly foreigners, to pare their equity portfolios.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange's Composite Index fell 1.2 percent, or 13.5 points, to 1,100.29, up from its intraday low of 1,090.18.
"The power outage has resulted in worries over an energy crisis which could hurt the nation's industrial sector," said a trader with a local securities firm.
Analysts say the outage reflects the poor state of Indonesia's energy transmission infrastructure at a time when surging economic growth is fueling record-high corporate and consumer demand for electricity.
They added that electricity supply problems could also hurt Indonesia's attractiveness as a foreign investment destination.
Decliners led gainers 110 to 25, with 51 stocks unchanged. Volume rose to rose to 1.76 billion shares valued at Rp 1.8 trillion, compared with 931 million shares valued at Rp 1.1 trillion on Tuesday.
The market was closed on Wednesday for the Independence Day.
The dollar closed at Rp 9,950, compared with its previous close of Rp 9,920.
Expectations that the weaker rupiah could hurt consumer spending took its toll on telecommunications companies as investors feared it may hurt their plans to net more cellular subscribers.
Telkom fell 2.9 percent to Rp 5,000 while rival Indonesian Satellite (Indosat) dropped 1.8 percent to Rp 5,550.
Dealers said investors continued to sell their bank stocks on expectations that the high interest rates could reduce net interest margins and push up cost of funds.
Bank Danamon dropped 3.2 percent to Rp 4,550, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) lost 1.2 percent to Rp 1,600, and Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) ended 2.9 percent lower at Rp 170.
Automotive company Astra International succumbed to selling pressure on worries that high interest rates could keep consumers from buying motorcycles and cars using bank loans.
Astra ended down 0.9 percent at Rp 10,700.
"Selling occurred across the blue chip board," said another trader with Andalan Artha Advisindo.
She expects the main index to test the support level of 1,090 on Friday, if selling continues.