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JCI down 1.83 percent over April's weak trade data
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The trading floor at the Indonesia Stock Exchange. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)
T
he Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) dropped 1.83 percent to 5,838.12 on the Tuesday's trading session as investors profited from weak trade data.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia recorded a trade deficit of US$1.63 billion in April due to a sharp increase in imports.
Exports grew by 9.01 percent year-on-year (yoy) to $14.47 billion, while imports grew by 34.68 percent yoy to $16.09 billion. The deficit is the weakest in the last four years.
Investa Saran Mandiri analyst Hans Kwee told The Jakarta Post that investors used the weak data announcement as a means to make a profit. "Our [economic] data is not good and people made a profit."
Hans said while the Surabaya bombings did not affect the market much, the weak trade data affected the market significantly.
The JCI was only down by 0.16 percent following the bombings on Sunday and Monday, which killed 25 people and wounded dozens.
Hans said the weak trade data showed that Indonesia was affected by import inflation as the rupiah weakened by 3.49 percent since the beginning of this year.
"The import inflation may create a push for Bank Indonesia (BI) to raise their reference rate to help the rupiah. We expected two rate hikes this year," he added. (bbn)
