The Indonesia stock market has climbed higher in two straight sessions, gathering almost 60 points or 1 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 5,790-point plateau and it's called higher again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is cautiously optimistic thanks to an improved outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourse were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The JCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday as gains from the telecoms and financials were limited by a mixed performance from the resource stocks.
For the day, the index advanced 40.88 percent or 0.71 percent to finish at 5,792.00 after trading between 5,764.31 and 5,850.54. There were 201 decliners and 173 gainers, with 109 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, XL Axiata surged 6.93 percent, while SLJ Global tumbled 2.88 percent, Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food skidded 1.68 percent, Lotte Chemical dropped 1.12 percent, Bank MNC Internasional declined 1.85 percent, Voksel Electric retreated 1.06 percent, Jasa Marga advanced 0.99 percent, Bank Pan Indonesia collected 0.61 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia soared 3.69 percent, Bank Mandiri spiked 3.83 percent, Bumi Resources added 0.79 percent, Vale Indonesia lost 1.08 percent, Indocement eased 0.15 percent and Bukit Darmo Property was unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street turned out positive as stocks showed a notable turnaround Wednesday after opening lower. The major averages climbed into positive territory following the release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.
The Dow edged up 52.40 points or 0.21 percent to 24,886.81, the NASDAQ climbed 47.50 points or 0.64 percent to 7,425.96 and the S&P 500 rose 8.85 points or 0.32 percent to 2,733.29.
The late upward move came as the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting were seen as dovish. The minutes showed uncertainty about the outlook for inflation, questioning whether the rate of inflation will be sustained at the Fed's 2 percent target.
The minutes said participants generally agreed that continuing to raise interest rates gradually would likely be appropriate if the economy evolves about as expected.
Crude oil prices fell Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration reported a massive increase in crude oil stockpiles. WTI light sweet oil for July lost 36 cents or 0.5 percent to settle at $71.84/bbl.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com