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JCI breaks 4,500-barrier on foreign fund inflows
Share prices on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) rose only slightly on Thursday but managed to push the main index to pass the psychological barrier of 4,500 for the first time in the history
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hare prices on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) rose only slightly on Thursday but managed to push the main index to pass the psychological barrier of 4,500 for the first time in the history.
The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), the main price barometer on the local exchange, ended the day at 4,503.15 rising nearly 1 percent from the previous day’s close, or 4.32 percent increase year to date.
“The increase on Thursday was minor, only about 4 points compared to a day earlier. Expectations of companies’ good earnings in 2012 contributed to the increase,” Sucorinvest Central Gani analyst Gifar Indra Sakti said.
The index managed to close in the green although other stocks in the Asia-Pacific region ended down as the market waited for the decision of the European Central Bank on its interest rates and further prospects for the European economy, analysts said.
The rise in Indonesian stocks in miscellaneous industries, consumer goods, property, finance and manufacturing helped the JCI to pass the 4,500-mark on Thursday. Other sectors, including agriculture, mining, basic industry, infrastructure and trade, ended down, according to figures from the bourse.
As many as 4.95 billion shares worth Rp 7.1 trillion (US$723 million) changed hands. Foreign investors pumped Rp 2.07 trillion into the market, the highest amount of daily inflows so far. The total foreign investors’ net buy has reached Rp 10.21 trillion year to date.
“The large trading volume was due to the registration of the sale of BCA [Bank Central Asia] shares,” PT Valbury Asia Securities managing director Johanes Soetikno said.
In a filing submitted to the IDX, BCA announced on Thursday that it had sold 198.78 million shares it held as treasury stocks to Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Ltd.
“The selling price was Rp 9,900 apiece,” BCA said.
BCA, whose market capitalization stood at Rp 245.3 trillion as of Thursday — the third-largest after PT Astra International and PT HM Sampoerna — was also the second-biggest movers that day, while Astra International, with Rp 310 trillion in market capitalization and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur were the second- and third-largest drivers of the rise in the stock price index.
Figures showed that shares in Indofood (INDF) also broke their all time high at Rp 6,550 apiece on Thursday, increasing by 3.15 percent compared to a day earlier. Indofood recently said that its subsidiary had entered an agreement to purchase a stake in a Brazilian sugar maker.
Analysts have projected that the JCI will touch 5,000 this year, particularly on the back of a strong domestic economy.
Johanes of Valbury said that the JCI would remain under the influence of the global market, which remained uncertain. However, he said, several factors, including big initial public offerings, would help the index to meet expectations.
Meanwhile, most other Asian shares dropped on earnings concerns after Nikon Corp. and News Corp. cut forecasts and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell from a four-year high, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
