Six-Day Rally Comes to End, But JCI Up 1.4% for Week

Indonesia. Six successive days of gains on the Jakarta Composite Index came to an end after it lost 38.38 points, or 1 percent, to close at 3,747.71 on Friday. 

The JCI was led lower by profit-taking and concerns over whether China would raise interest rates. China’s November inflation is expected to reach 5.1 percent, the highest in the last 28 months, an analyst said. 

“The huge portion of capital inflow in our market indicates that foreign investors are still dominating the JCI trading activity. That’s the reason why our capital market is really sensitive to all the ongoing situations in regional markets,” said Pardomuan Sihombing, a market analyst at Recapital Securities. 

About 9.2 billion shares worth Rp 14.5 trillion ($1.6 billion) changed hands on Friday. Decliners led gainers 142 to 75. The JCI advanced 1.4 percent on the week. 

Astra Agro Lestari, the nation’s largest listed plantation company by market value, lost 1.3 percent to Rp 26,750. 

“Commodity prices rallied during the week, especially at major companies like Astra Agro Lestari. That leads to a bigger chance of profit-taking on the weekend,” said Praska Putrantyo, an analyst at Infovesta Utama. 

International Nickel Indonesia, the nation’s largest nickel producer, fell 1.1 percent to Rp 4,700. Nickel futures in London dropped the most since Nov. 16 on Thursday, losing 1.7 percent to $23,605 a metric ton. 

Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering, a construction and engineering firm, gained 5 percent to Rp 84, its biggest rise in two weeks. Shares rose after Kontan weekly reported it had won a Rp 254.1 billion contract to develop a power plant in Central Kalimantan. 

The rupiah was unchanged at 9,020 against the US dollar as the market closed on Friday. 

Inflows into the stock and bond markets were offset by concerns China would tighten its monetary policy. 

Foreign investors bought $66.2 million more Indonesian shares than they sold this week, bringing the year’s net purchases to $2.2 billion. The local currency has gained 4.1 percent this year. 

“There’s some degree of risk aversion heading into the weekend with rumors that China may tighten again and that is supporting dollar-rupiah around 9,000,” said Joanna Tan, a regional economist at Forecast Singapore. “But good inflows into stocks and bonds this week capped the spot.”