(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market headed south again on Friday, one day after ending the two-day slide in which it had dropped more than 100 points or 1.6 percent. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just beneath the 6,540-point plateau and it's likely to take further damage on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative on coronavirus and economic concerns, with oil and technology stocks likely to lead the way lower. The European and U.S. markets finished solidly under water and the Asian markets are expected to open in similar fashion.
The SET finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financials and mixed performances from the resource and cement stocks.
For the day, the index sank 45.31 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 6,538.51 after trading between 6,536.91 and 6,600.17.
Among the actives, Bank Danamon Indonesia shed 0.42 percent, while Bank CIMB Niaga collected 0.51 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia declined 1.47 percent, Bank Central Asia retreated 1.67 percent, Bank Mandiri lost 0.69 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia slid 0.71 percent, Indosat rose 0.32 percent, Indocement spiked 3.02 percent, Semen Indonesia tumbled 2.17 percent, Indofood Suskes fell 0.39 percent, United Tractors tanked 2.26 percent, Astra International surrendered 1.71 percent, Energi Mega Persada dropped 0.89 percent, Astra Agro Lestari skidded 1.02 percent, Vale Indonesia sank 0.63 percent, Timah advanced 0.95 percent and Bumi Resources, Aneka Tambang and Bakrie Sumatera Plantations were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly turned lower and spent the remainder of the day in negative territory.
The Dow shed 59/72 points or 0.17 percent to finish at 34,580.08, while the NASDAQ plummeted 295.83 points or 1.92 percent to close at 15,085.47 and the S&P 500 lost 38.67 points or 0.84 percent to end at 4,538.43. For the week, the NASDAQ tumbled 2.6 percent, the S&P lost 1.2 percent and the Dow fell 0.9 percent.
The losses extended the volatility seen throughout the week, with stocks showing wild swings in reaction to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. After the first confirmed case in the U.S. earlier in the week, the new variant has now been detected in at least five states.
Traders also reacted to the Labor Department report showing weaker than expected U.S. job growth in November, although the jobless rate fell to 4.2 percent - its lowest since February 2020.
While the disappointing job growth has raised some concerns about the economic outlook amid the emergence of the Omicron variant, the Federal Reserve is not expected to deviate from accelerating the tapering of its asset purchases.
Crude oil futures pared early gains and settled lower Friday amid uncertainty about the outlook for energy demand due to fresh restrictions following the spread of the new coronavirus variant Omicron in several countries. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended down by $0.24 or 0.4 percent at $66.26 a barrel.
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