Asian Economic News
Jakarta Stocks May Extend Decline
11/19/2009 9:01 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
The Indonesian stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the six-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 105 points or 4 percent in the process. The Jakarta Composite Index finished just below the 2,470-point plateau, and now analysts are expecting that the losses will accelerate when the market kicks off trade on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, thanks to continued selling pressure among the technology and financial stocks. Commodities are also under pressure, with oil stocks expected to ease and gold stocks may see profit taking after hitting another fresh record high. The European and U.S. markets finished sharply lower, and the Asian bourses are also expected to track to the downside.
The JCI finished modestly lower on Thursday, thanks to weakness among the automobile producers and the financials.
For the day, the index lost 15.44 points or 0.62 percent to finish at 2, 468.79 after trading between 2,458.28 and 2,491.48. Volume was 9.408 billion shares worth 3.817 trillion rupiah.
Among the decliners, Astra International lost 3 percent and Bank Mandiri shed 1.6 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is firmly negative as stocks moved considerably lower on Thursday, with some disappointing economic data prompting traders to cash in on the recent strength in the markets. The major averages all closed in negative territory, backing further off of the one-year highs set on Tuesday.
Before the start of trading, the Labor Department reported that first-time jobless claims in the week ended November 14th came in at 505,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to edge up to 504,000 from the 502,000 originally reported for the previous week. With jobless claims unchanged, they remained above the 500,000 level, pointing to continued weakness in the labor market. Jobless claims have not been below 500,000 since coming in at 488,000 in the week ended January 3rd.
Separately, the Conference Board reported a continued increase in its leading economic indicators index in the month of October, although the increase by the index was slightly smaller than economists had been anticipating. The leading indicators index rose 0.3 percent in October following a 1.0 percent gain in September and a 0.4 percent increase in August. While the index rose for the seventh consecutive month, economists had been expecting a 0.4 percent increase.
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