The Indonesian stock market will remain under pressure this
The Indonesian stock market will remain under pressure this
week after sliding sharply in the past week, an analyst said over
the weekend.
"Next week I think the market will still be under pressure,"
said Hendra Bujang, corporate finance manager at Margakarya
Securities.
"First, because global markets are also under pressure and
second, investors are still concerned about security ahead of the
presidential election. The bombing in Pekanbaru shows that
Indonesia remains vulnerable," he said.
"That is one reason why investors prefer to engage in profit-
taking or stay out of the market. They are worried about possible
systematic attempts to disrupt the election."
The bombing last Tuesday of a shophouse in Pekanbaru city
killed two workers for an ethnic Chinese grocery store operator.
The motive remains unclear.
Indonesia holds its first direct presidential election on July
5.
The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index closed on Friday at
743.637, down 39.776 points or 5.1 percent on the previous
Friday. Average daily volume was 1.59 billion shares worth Rp
1.02 trillion (US$116.7 million) compared with 1.47 billion
shares worth Rp 921.7 billion the previous week.
In Bangkok, the Thai stock market is expected to hover
rangebound in sluggish trading as the bourse remained under
negative domestic and overseas factors.
Overseas investors would stop selling off their Thai holdings
given the Morgan Stanley Capital International index is expected
to increase its weight in the Taiwan market this week.
2. 2 x 24
Asia remains ambiguous
about low-cost carriers
As European low-cost carriers run into flak, Asia remains
ambiguous about them
While dozens of low-cost airlines in Europe are locked in a
dogfight for survival, the concept of no-frills carriers is just
taking off on the Asian and Australian continents.
The cutthroat competition in Europe has caused at least three
carriers among the more than 50 currently operating at present to
go belly up in recent months.
And Europe's largest low-cost airline, easyJet PLC, said last
week that competitive pressure led to a loss of 19.7 million
pounds (US$35 million) in the first half of its fiscal year.
Still, another two dozen startups are awaiting permission to
begin flying across the EU.
"This is a problem that's been brewing in Europe for quite
some time with so many people jumping onto the bandwagon they
were always going to hit a bit of a bump," said Peter Harbison,
head of the Center for Asia-Pacific Aviation in Sydney,
Australia.
While Europe's budget airlines undergo growing pains, Asia's
are still in their infancy.
With an area several times larger than Europe and about five
times more people, industry analysts say expectations for growth
in Asia's budget air travel is tremendous.
But in many countries, including the region's largest
potential market, China, government-held aviation turf is closely
guarded, with state-sponsored carriers and other full-service
airlines restricting landing slots and effectively shutting out
new entrants.
A number of other nations have resisted the temptation to
deregulate their markets, including South Korea and Taiwan.
But that hasn't caused a complete standstill in the
development of low-cost airlines in the region. Industry
mavericks such as recording industry-turned airline executive
Tony Fernandes, who runs Malaysia-based AirAsia, have moved the
ball forward by forging cross-border joint-ventures.
3. 2 x 32
Oil hits 13-year high on security
fears, gold hits six-month low
Oil hits 13-year high, gold sets six-month low
Concerns about the security of Middle East oil supplies and a
feverish gasoline market in the United States drove crude oil
prices to a 13-year high of US$40 a barrel in New York this week.
Gold prices hit a six-month low, as a strong dollar weighed on
the precious metal and other commodities priced in the U.S.-unit.
The Commodities Research Bureau (CBI) index of 17 commodities
rose to 272.84 points on Friday from 272.53 a week earlier.
Gold: Gold prices slumped to a six-month trough as the dollar
surged against other major currencies and investors bet on rising
U.S. interest rates.
"The end of the 'reflation trade', where investors saw
commodities benefiting from low interest rates, money supply
growth and a weak U.S. dollar, has greatly affected gold,"
Barclays Capital analyst Kamal Naqvi said.
4. 1 x 40
Airbus launches production of 'Superjumbo'
Airbus Launches Production Of A380 `Superjumbo' Airliner
European aircraft maker Airbus SAS on Friday launched
production of its A380 "superjumbo," the biggest-ever commercial
airliner, stepping up its challenge to U.S. rival Boeing Co. and
the midsize jet on which it has staked its future.
During a ceremony attended by French Prime Minister Jean-
Pierre Raffarin, Airbus unveiled the first fuselage at its
massive new $435 million assembly plant near the southern city of
Toulouse.
The 220-hectare site will receive sections of the plane built
by Airbus workers in France, Germany, the U.K. and Spain and
transported to Toulouse on specially constructed ships, river
barges and trucks.
The A380 confirms Airbus' status as "one of the most beautiful
pages in the book of French and European industrial history,"
Raffarin told about 3,000 assembled VIP guests and Airbus
workers.
Company executives said a combination of limited global runway
capacities and steady growth in demand for air travel promised a
rosy future for the A380.
The 555-seater A380 will carry about one-quarter more
passengers than a Boeing 747, making better use of precious
takeoff and landing slots as well as fuel, flight crew and other
resources when it enters service for Singapore Airlines in 2006.