Indonesia Bourse May Be Stuck In Neutral On Wednesday

The Indonesia stock market has tracked higher in back-to-back sessions, rising almost 110 points or 1.3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just shy of the 8,620-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology shares expected to lead the markets higher. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were modestly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Tuesday following gains from the telecoms, weakness from the food stocks and mixed performances from the financial, cement and resource sectors.

For the day, the index gained 68.25 points or 0.80 percent to finish at 8,617.04 after trading between 8,564.70 and 8,625.64.

Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga collected 0.57 percent, while Bank Mandiri dipped 0.21 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia dropped 0.93 percent, Bank Central Asia fell 0.30 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia climbed 1.09 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison added 0.43 percent, Indocement rose 0.38 percent, Semen Indonesia tumbled 2.09 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur tanked 2.04 percent, United Tractors jumped 1.97 percent, Astra International rallied 3.92 percent, Energi Mega Persada shed 0.42 percent, Aneka Tambang lost 0.33 percent, Vale Indonesia soared 3.66 percent, Timah improved 0.31 percent, Bumi Resources slumped 1.63 percent and Bank Danamon Indonesia and Astra Agro Lestari were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday and remained in the green throughout the session, although it was a choppy day.

The Dow climbed 185.13 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 47,474.46, while the NASDAQ jumped 137.75 points or 0.59 percent to close at 23,413.67 and the S&P 500 added 16.74 points or 0.25 percent to end at 6,829.37.

The strength on Wall Street came amid a strong rebound by Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency soared by more than 6 percent after moving sharply lower on Monday. Bitcoin’s rally along with an advance by AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) may have been an indication of renewed risk appetite.

Semiconductor stocks helped lead the markets higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping by 1.8 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among computer stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Crude oil prices gave ground on Tuesday as efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict have sent positive signals of a ceasefire sooner than expected. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.55 or 0.93 percent at $58.77 per barrel.