Indonesian Stocks Drop as Foreign Investors Take Flight

Jakarta Globe, Reuters & Bloomberg, May 21, 2010

The JCI pulled out of a steep 4 percent plunge, but still closed considerably lower. Its recent string of bad luck has been blamed on the rocky US economy. (Antara Photo)

The biggest one-day drop in more than a year on Wall Street on Thursday hit the Indonesian market on Friday, as fresh doubts about the strength of the US economy added to worries about European debt, causing jittery investors to flee riskier assets such as developing market stocks.

The Jakarta Composite Index dove 4 percent in morning trade before trimming its losses to 2.6 percent, and capping its worst week since the height of the global financial crisis in November 2008.

The index tumbled 8.2 percent over the week, and has fallen 12 percent from a record high set in early May. A drop of more than 10 percent is considered a correction by some analysts.

The rupiah, meanwhile, fell as much as much as 0.4 percent on Friday before recovering to close little changed amid intervention by Bank Indonesia.

However, the central bank said that it was not considering capital controls to limit volatility.

Edwin Sinaga, president director of brokerage PT Finacorporindo Nusa, said external factors were entirely to blame for the recent declines in local stocks, with selling by foreign funds creating “panic” among local sellers, adding fuel to the sell-off.

“We are always sensitive to global factors and when foreign investors sell massively many local investors also panic,” Edwin said.

Bank Indonesia doesn’t see the need to go “all out” to help the market or impose capital controls amid the market’s “turbulence,” senior deputy governor Darmin Nasution said on Friday.

The rupiah’s decline is temporary and Bank Indonesia will stay in the market to ease the currency’s volatility, he said.

“The outflows are temporary, in line with other currencies that are weakening against dollar. In times like this it’s normal that investors want to put their money in the safest instruments, such as dollars or gold,” Darmin said.

Indonesia is still perceived as having a fundamentally strong economy, he said.

“[Investors] will come back here when they have calmed down,” Darmin said, adding that capital inflows in recent months still far outweighed outflows.

Overseas investors took out a net $191 million from the Indonesian market in the last four days, taking net withdrawals this month to $263 million.

“[The rupiah’s decline] is very much driven by the European situation and this is causing broad-based position liquidation in Asia,” said Thio Chin Loo, senior currency analyst BNP Paribas in Singapore. “The decline in Asian currencies is not due to economic fundamentals but due to reduction in risk across all markets.”

Yields on 10-year bonds gained 15 basis points to 9.12 percent, while 20-year bonds pushed 10 basis points higher to 10.25 percent from Thursday.

On the stock market, energy companies were hit hard by falling oil prices. PT Medco Energi Internasional, Indonesia’s largest listed oil company, fell 3.5 percent, while PT Bumi Resources, Asia’s biggest exporter of power-station coal, lost 4.5 percent. A lower oil price reduces the appeal of alternative fuels such as coal.

PT Bakrieland Development, Indonesia’s second-largest property developer by assets, plunged 12 percent, its biggest decrease since Nov. 30, after revealing it planned to raise Rp 5.4 trillion ($583.2 million) selling new shares in a rights offer in July to fund expansion.

PT Astra International declined to its lowest level in more than two months in Jakarta trading after the rupiah fell this week, raising concern that the cost of vehicle imports will rise at the Indonesian automotive retailer. Astra fell 1.17 percent.

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