T

he Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) says it is upbeat about meeting its new listed company target by the year end, despite only two new firms making their public debuts in the first quarter.

IDX president director Ito Warsito said several companies were still awaiting their audited 2014 financial reports so they could submit their applications.

Ito said the bourse was still on track to have 32 companies entering stock markets, despite two companies having listed their shares in the stock exchange so far this year, the lowest compared to the number of new listed companies in the first quarter of the last five years.

The two companies are lender Bank Yudha Bakti , which raised Rp 58.6 billion (US$4.5 million) from the sale of 300 million of shares in January, and hospital operator Mitra Keluarga Karyasehat, which listed on Tuesday with initial public offering (IPO) proceeds of about Rp 4.45 trillion.

'€œMost IPO candidates are still waiting for their audited 2014 financial results. We expect more firms to go public in the second or third quarters,'€ Ito explained.

Analysts, however, are not optimistic, saying that the first quarter results show a declining appetite both from companies and investors for new IPOs amid bearish markets.

The IDX'€™s listed company target was higher than last year'€™s target of 30 companies, before being revised down to 25 firms on the basis that unfavorable market conditions during election year had driven companies away from the stock market.

Twenty four companies, however, had listed their shares in the bourse by the end of last year.

This year'€™s optimistic target was set on the back of expected improved market conditions following the change in national leadership, but with global market conditions and the country'€™s current economic situation, analysts were pessimistic that the stock market could meet the figure by year end.

'€œThere'€™s a case of supply and demand here,'€ Danareksa Sekuritas president director Marciano Herman said.

Marciano said the number of attractive, mature companies ready to go public had reduced in recent years.

'€œThere'€™s three IPO sources in Indonesia: the privatization of state-run firms, the subsidiaries of conglomerates and independent companies. While I don'€™t see any of the first source having IPOs in the near future, the stock market can rely on the latter,'€ he explained.

He added that the demand for more companies was not high, given the recovering US economy and the slowdown in China, which had affected Southeast Asian markets as investors looked elsewhere.

University of Indonesia stock market expert Budi Frensidy said that with the bearish market, the country'€™s dwindling currency and bleak economic data, it was very unlikely that the market would meet such a high target.

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) '€” the main price barometer in the IDX '€” closed at 5,405.5 on Wednesday, lower by 0.77 percent from a day earlier.

Foreign investors recorded a net sell of Rp 397.4 billion.