The main gauge of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) concluded its trading at 6,012.52 on Monday or 1.25 percent higher than Friday’s closing, shaving off some of the index losses to 4.56 percent since the beginning of the year.

Stocks of privately owned Bank Central Asia (BCA), cigarettemaker PT HM Sampoerna and technology and media company PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi led the JCI's surge on Monday.

“The invention of the COVID-19 vaccines supported the market’s bullish movement on hopes of a better economic situation next year,” Artha Sekuritas vice president Frederik Rasali told The Jakarta Post via text message on Monday.

Global markets reached new highs in November following news that vaccines developed by United States drug makers Pfizer and Moderna had a high efficacy rate in preventing COVID-19 infection. The United Kingdom started to administer the vaccine for medical frontliners and senior citizens last week, with Canada planning to follow suit this week.

In the meantime, Indonesia received 1.2 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech. The vaccine is still awaiting efficacy results and emergency approval from the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency.

News of vaccine development also restored foreign investors’ confidence in Indonesian stocks. Foreign inflows were recorded at US$3.68 billion during the period of October to Nov. 18, Bank Indonesia (BI) data shows. However, the JCI still recorded a total of Rp 46.33 trillion ($3.3 billion) in net foreign sell as of Monday as investors dumped risky assets earlier this year over coronavirus fears, resulting in market crashes in March and April.

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