Yohanes Obor

Global Worries to Continue Weighing on Indonesian Market

Indonesian stocks will likely face more selling pressure this week over continued worries about European sovereign debt, the US economy and Beijing’s moves to tighten lending, analysts said.

The Jakarta Composite Index fell 74.24 points, or 2.9 percent, to close at 2,518.98 on Friday, its steepest one-day drop since Dec. 21. The JCI lost 3.5 percent last week, the most since the week ended Nov. 27. Foreign investors were net sellers of Rp 296 billion ($31.7 million) of Indonesian shares last week.

Bayburs Alfaris, a trader at PT Kim Eng Securities, said the US market had been bearish since the Obama administration announced a proposal to rein in US banks, a move that he said would weigh on sentiment for months.

Purwoko Sartono, an analyst at PT Panin Sekuritas, said the JCI could rebound early in the week from the sharp declines seen late last week, but would likely continue falling late in the week.

“For intermediate-term investors, the current decline could become a chance to buy stocks on weakness,” he said, adding that the index may trade between 2,490 and 2,549 points this week.

“The buying would be selective, aimed at certain blue chips with big market capitalizations,” Purwoko said, noting that foreign investors may sell stocks in the short term.

Last month, Fauzi Ichsan, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank, said the appetite among foreign investors for domestic assets would likely weaken during the first quarter of this year as offshore investors adopted a wait-and-see approach due to uncertainty over when developed countries would roll back their economic stimulus measures. 

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