TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Indonesian stocks battered by profit-taking, hit sixth circuit breaker in month

Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) halted trading for 30 minutes on Monday moring as the index dropped 5 percent to 4,318.29 points.

Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, March 30, 2020

Share This Article

Change Size

Indonesian stocks battered by profit-taking, hit sixth circuit breaker in month The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) logo is seen in front of a giant screen displaying stock prices at the IDX building in Jakarta on March 13. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

I

ndonesian stocks hit another circuit breaker on Monday morning, the sixth time this month, as the main gauge, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), plunged by 5 percent after last week’s rally.

Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) halted trading for 30 minutes at 10:20 a.m. as the index was down 5 percent at 4,318.29 points with the transaction volume standing at Rp 1.75 trillion (US$106.68 million), trading director Laksono Widodo told the press via text message.

As many as 300 stocks were in the red on Monday morning, led by consumer goods giant PT Unilever Indonesia, which hit the auto-rejection limit of 7 percent, followed by gold miner PT Aneka Tambang (-6.96 percent) and state-owned lender Bank Mandiri (-6.88 percent).

Read also: First time in history: Shorter trading hours for Indonesian stocks amid COVID-19

The rupiah, meanwhile, depreciated by 0.93 percent to Rp 16,320 per US dollar. Since the beginning of the year, the Indonesian currency has weakened by 17.7 percent against the greenback.

The plunge in the JCI following last week’s rally was driven by a selling spree among domestic investors. Foreign investors, meanwhile, purchased more Indonesian shares than they sold, registering a net buy of Rp 14.19 billion.

“Investors are taking profit out of the stock market after share prices rallied for two consecutive days last week,” Panin Sekuritas analyst William Hartanto told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“Last week’s rally was merely a technical rebound,” said William, referring to the fact that the world’s main problem, the COVID-19 pandemic, had yet to be resolved.

The JCI concluded its trade in positive territory on Friday, gaining 4.8 percent in a day. The day before, the index had recorded a 10 percent gain in a session following the United States $2 trillion fiscal support that pushed Wall Street northward.

Last week, the main gauge added 8.36 percent to its value, but that still leaves a loss of 28 percent so far this year.

On Monday morning, stocks listed in other Asian markets also suffered hard hits. Singapore’s index gauge plummeted by 4.08 percent, Tokyo’s plunged 3.07 percent, while Hong Kong’s and Shanghai’s were also down by more than 1 percent as Wall Street was closed in the red.

Read also: Indonesian stocks soar 10% but COVID-19 risks loom

The spread of COVID-19 is still affecting global markets. The pneumonia-like disease has infected more than 700,000 people worldwide and killed almost 34,000. In Indonesia, the latest data shows that the virus has infected almost 1,300 people and killed 114.

William projected that the JCI could still decline further than the 3,900 level it hit earlier last week.

“Looking back, the JCI could decline by 50 percent during an economic crash, so I think it could still continue to decline to around the 3,200 to 3,400 level,” he said, adding that he expected the index to continue its downtrend.

As of 11:31 a.m. after trading had resumed, the JCI’s decline was trimmed to 4.1 percent.

{

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.