The Indonesian stock has finished at a record closing high now in three straight sessions, adding more than 75 points or 2.5 percent in the process. The Jakarta Composite Index finished just below the 3,100-point plateau, but now investors are bracing for consolidation at the opening of trade on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is mildly pessimistic, thanks to mixed messages from the Federal Reserve. Utilities and technology stocks may come under pressure, although financials and oil companies are expected to provide support. The European and U.S. markets finished in negative territory, and now the Asian bourses are tipped to follow that lead.
The JCI finished sharply higher on Thursday, thanks to solid gains from the financials and the automobile producers.
For the day, the index collected 39.34 points or 1.3 percent to finish at 3,096.82 after trading between 3,056.67 and 3,097.19. Volume was 6.7 billion shares worth 6.76 trillion rupiah. There were 147 gainers and 72 decliners.
Among the gainers, Astra International added 3 percent, while Unilever Indonesia jumped 3.6 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur surged 5 percent and Bank Central Asia gained 3.3 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is broadly negative as stocks ended moderately lower on Thursday, with mixed indications from the Federal Reserve, the labor market and the earnings front prompting some selling in the equity markets. With the declines, the major averages pulled back further off their recent highs.
The markets came under pressure in the early afternoon following some unsettling comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard, who spooked the markets when he said that the Fed's current policies are putting the U.S. at risk for "a Japanese-style deflationary outcome within the next several years."
While Bullard said the most likely course for the U.S. economy is a gradual recovery, he said that if prices drop, the Fed should think about buying more Treasury securities instead of promising to keep interest rates low for an "extended period."
Early gains in the markets were seen as the markets focused on a decline in jobless claims and the silver lining in a mixed bag of earnings reports.
Before the start of trading, the Labor Department released a report showing that jobless claims in the week ended July 24th dropped to 457,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 468,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to edge down to 460,000 from the 464,000 originally reported for the previous week.
In earnings news, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL) both reported second quarter earnings estimates that beat Wall Street projections but fell short of revenue expectations. Meanwhile, Motorola Inc. (MOT) reported adjusted second-quarter earnings and sales that were ahead of estimates.
After the markets closed for trading in the previous session, Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. (SNE) reported a profit for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 compared to a loss in the same period last year. The company also raised its full year earnings guidance.
The major averages saw some downside in late-session dealing, slipping back into negative territory. The Dow fell by 30.72 points or 0.3 percent to 10,467.16, the NASDAQ declined by 12.87 points or 0.6 percent to 2,251.69 and the S&P 500 slid by 4.60 points or 0.4 percent to 1,101.53.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com