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IDX urged to stop trading as market rout shows no signs of slowing
The price fall continued on Monday, with the Jakarta Composite Index losing 5 percent to land at 3,979 at the close of trading.
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Visitors take pictures of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) trading board in Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
M
arket players are calling on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) to consider suspending stock trading for several days as panic selling over the impacts of COVID-19 on the country is showing no signs of slowing.
Capital market expert Teguh Hidayat urged the bourse to stop trading for a few days to help calm investors amid heightened concerns over the pandemic.
“If trading continues, the market will fall even deeper than it already has,” he said over the phone on Wednesday.
Almost all shares on the stock exchange plunged sharply within the last two weeks amid fears over the pandemic’s crippling impact on business activities and the country’s already sluggish economy.
The price fall continued on Monday, with the exchange’s main market indicator, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), losing another 5 percent to land at 3,985 at the close of trading. This month alone, the index has dropped by about 25 percent. Throughout the year, the JCI has lost 35 percent of its value.
Teguh said that as a market player, he would fully support the decision to stop trading on the IDX as Indonesia would not be the first country to do so.
The Philippines announced on March 17 the suspension of stock, bond and currency trading until further notice, becoming the first big country to shut its financial markets because of the pandemic.
