The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), the main gauge of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), fell as much as 4.47 percent to 5,288.37, a level unseen since December 2016, during Friday’s intraday session before slowly rebounding to end the trading day at 5,452.7, 1.5 percent down from the previous close. It was an extension of its 2.69 percent loss the previous day, as spooked investors dumped stocks across Asia.

Foreign investors recorded net sales of Rp 17.21 billion (US$1.2 million) on Friday, taking the total net sales this year to Rp 4.72 trillion, IDX data shows.

“We’re not the worst. This is a global phenomenon caused by the extraordinary panic over the novel coronavirus [outbreak],” IDX president director Inarno Djajadi told reporters in Jakarta on Friday. “We have tools [to prevent a sharp decrease] that we’ll use if necessary.”

Read also: Stocks near 3-year low as foreign investors post huge sell-off amid virus fears

The COVID-19 outbreak, which according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering had infected more than 83,500 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800 as of Friday, has disrupted the business activities of the world’s economic giants, such as China, Japan and South Korea, and sent jitters through the United States, which has seen an increasing number of confirmed cases on its soil.

Inarno said his institution was working closely with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to ramp up its crisis protocol and measures to prevent further steep declines in the stock market.

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