Jakarta Index Falls Deeper

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Negative sentiment over expectation that the US central bank to cut its financial policy again dragged down Indonesia's benchmark stock index on Thursday.

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange closed 1.11 percent lower  at 4,171.41 points with index of 45 most liquid stocks down 0.96 percent to 689.49 points.

"Speculation about The Fed's final decision prompted market players at the domestic market to release shares resulting in deeper  fall  of the index," Trust Securities' chief researcher  Reza Priyambada said.

Reza said the government's call on domestic financial agencies to enter the market was not enough to resist the pressure  on the index.

He noted, however, a number of stocks gained before the close on Thursday  giving rise to hope that the index would regain some of the losses  on Friday.

"The potential to gain is there or at least losses would not be as deep as on Thursday," he predicted.

He said foreign investors still tend to sell their shares contributing to the share price fall.

Net sales by foreign investors  reached Rp887.949 billion in the BEI on Thursday. There were 215,616 transactions in Thursday's trading at BEI with 5.914 billion shares valued at Rp6.040 trillion changing hands.

Gainers were outnumbered by decliners by 100 to  207  with 64 stocks unchanged. Regional markets such as Hang Seng gained 0.36 percent in index to close at 21,895.40 points with Nikkei-225 index down 0.44 percent to 13,365.17 points  and that of Straits Times lost 0.47 percent to 3,094.35 points. (*/DWA)