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hare prices on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) rebounded Friday following sharp decline early in the week amid the Chinese stock market route.

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) rallied significantly on the last trading day of the week, jumping by 1.91 percent to 4,802.53 at closing, slightly paring a significant loss it suffered along the week.

The index rebounded despite unsatisfying first-half corporate results, with many big capitalized companies seeing shrinking profits, slower growth and even losses.

The JCI slumped by 1.11 percent on a weekly basis after a nearly 3 percent decline on Tuesday and Wednesday, hauled by gloomy Chinese index and economic updates as well as the rupiah'€™s depreciation against the US dollar.

The rupiah hit a new 17-year low several times this week, plumbing a fresh depth on Friday at 13,539 per US dollar, but it did quell stock market players'€™ shopping appetite.

With no strong basis for spending, analysts said there was no guarantee that the market would buck the bearish trend soon, instead warning of a possible steep downturn next week.

Analysts warned that the steep increase in the stock index was only temporary, occurring because many investors had entered the market to take advantage of low prices.

Alfred Nainggolan from Koneksi Kapital said that investors had been waiting for the right moment to start buying and as regional indexes improved, they had started to make their move despite poor first-half corporate earnings.

'€œThe index has slumped significantly and a handful of shares marketed have sold at much lower prices. Corporate earnings serve as a basis for investors, showing them which stocks to put their money in during difficult economic times like these. That'€™s why construction and property sub-indexes made noteworthy growth on Friday '€” they are the sectors considered to be growing healthily,'€ Alfred said.

According to the bourse'€™s data, only around 15 percent of around 500 firms listed on the bourse saw their stock prices increase by more than 2 percent, 18 percent went up by less than 2 percent, around 18 percent saw their share prices fall while nearly half of the listed stocks were unmoved.

Diversified group PT Astra International, state-run Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), state toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, high-end supermarket operator PT Supra Boga Lestari, state-owned cement producer PT Semen Gresik and precast concrete firm PT Wika Beton, to name a few, all posted profit drops of more than 15 percent.

Consumers sub-index made the highest increases during the day of trading, rising around 3.23 percent, which Alfred said was because maintained revenue showed Indonesians still had strong purchasing power to support the economy.

Indofood was among the latest batch of companies posting six-month results on Friday, the firm'€™s sales rising by around 3 percent and its net profit falling by around 25 percent. It shares, however, were among the top movers, up by 3.4 percent on a daily basis.

'€œA jumping index with relatively low transactions cannot be a guarantee for a rally, it might slump by more than 1 percent next week,'€ he said.

Satrio Utomo from Universal Brokers said that with the disappointing corporate results, investors believed that the companies had hit rock-bottom and could not do any worse, and had thus started to revamp their portfolios.

'€œThe results should not be used as a guide to investment; [investors] should at least wait until first-half economic growth has been published. If there are any unnerving regional updates, the index might fall steeply,'€ he said.