Jakarta shares end lower, led by sales of Telkom, Indosat stock
Jakarta shares end lower, led by sales of Telkom, Indosat stock
Dow Jones, Jakarta
Jakarta shares ended lower on Thursday led by selling in Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Indonesian Satellite, with losses in most Asian markets hurting overall sentiment, dealers said.
They added that the market took a break, after gains in the previous two sessions, because of lingering worries that the central bank will increase its key interest rate to fight rising inflation.
"Selling occurred almost across the board," said a trader with a local securities firm.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index ended down 8.231 points, or 0.7 percent, at 1108.44.
Decliners led gainers 111 to 28, with 62 stocks unchanged.
Volume was 1.35 billion shares valued at Rp 1.20 trillion, compared with 1.65 billion shares valued at Rp 1.60 trillion on Wednesday.
Bellwether Telekomunikasi Indonesia led decliners, falling 1.1 percent to end at Rp 4,675 after its American Depositary Receipts fell 0.8 percent on Wednesday.
Telkom's rival Indosat also tracked a fall in its ADRs, dropping 1 percent to Rp 4,950 after its ADRs shed 1 percent.
Dealers said falls in telecommunication blue chips spurred investors to sell some other blue chips.
Nickel miner International Nickel Indonesia dropped 1.7 percent to Rp 14,550 and gold and nickel miner Aneka Tambang lost 2 percent to Rp 2,400.
Bucking the trend was Bank Mandiri, which rose 0.6 percent to Rp 1,730 on a rebound after recent falls.
Dealers said they expect the market to trade lower on Friday on further selling in telecom and mining blue chips.
Meanwhile, the rupiah weakened following a slide in the local stock market and the dollar's rebound against the yen, dealers said.
The dollar closed at Rp 9,503, up from its close on Wednesday at Rp 9,485.
"Foreign market players bought back the dollar likely because of the slide in the local stock market," a dealer with a foreign bank said.
Dealers said market players also speculated on a rise in dollar demand from state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina in the coming days, after it received Rp 4 trillion in cash from the government earlier this week to import petroleum products.
The market appeared to ignore the central bank's statement late on Wednesday that Indonesia is expected to have net foreign exchange supplies of $6.9 billion this year.
It said the government is expected to receive $7.5 billion in net foreign exchange supplies, while foreign exchange demand from local companies is estimated to reach $595 million.
"The market ignored the projection of the huge net foreign exchange surplus this year as most of the foreign exchange supply is expected to come later this year," a dealer with a local bank said.
Dealers expect the dollar to trade between Rp 9,490 and Rp 9,540 on Friday.