The year 2019 was relatively tough for the Indonesian stock market as investors’ appetite was largely turned off by uncertainties around legislative and presidential elections held in April. A prolonged trade spat between the world’s economic giants, the United States and China, further worsened the situation as trade volume dropped, leading to a global economic slowdown.

But after Indonesia’s political situation began to stabilize and the US and China struck a “phase one” trade deal late last year, market players are more hopeful entering 2020.

Analysts are upbeat that the Indonesia Stock Exchange’s (IDX) main gauge, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), will be able to jump around 10 percent this year.

The stock index closed its final 2019 trading day on Monday at 6,299.54 points, down 0.47 percent from Friday. Throughout last year, the index gained a modest 1.7 percent — not nearly enough to make up for the 2.54 percent contraction recorded in 2018.

Meanwhile, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by only 5.02 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the third quarter of 2019, the slowest pace in more than two years, as investment fell and household spending stagnated amid a cooling global economy.

Citigroup Sekuritas Indonesia’s head of Indonesia research, Ferry Wong, said on Dec. 10 that the new Cabinet was more business-friendly as all its members were committed to tackling business red tape to attract more investment into the country.

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