Indonesia Shares May Be Stuck In Neutral On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Indonesia stock market has finished higher in back-to-back sessions, gathering almost 75 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just beneath the 4,785-point plateau, and now the market is looking at a fairly flat lead for Friday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky after a slight pullback in the price of crude oil and mixed economic data that clouds the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly higher and the U.S. bourses were mixed but little changed - and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The JCI finished modestly higher on Thursday following gains from the resource stocks and energy producers, while the financials ended mixed.

For the day, the index perked 11.59 points or 0.24 percent to finish at 4,784.56 after trading between 4,761.46 and 4,784.66.

Among the actives, Astra Agro Lestari jumped 1.02 percent, while Aneka Tambang spiked 3.82 percent, Alam Sutera Realty perked 1.54 percent, Bank Central Asia collected 0.19 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia advanced 0.89 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia slipped 1.01 percent, Bank Mandiri fell 0.83 percent, Exploitasi Energi Indonesia surged 5.81 percent, XL Axiata was up 2.10 percent, Vale Indonesia soared 6.56 percent and Indika Energy climbed 3.23 percent. The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as stocks showed a lack of direction on Thursday as traders digested mixed economic data, which added uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates. The NASDAQ inched up 6.88 points or 0.1 percent to 4,901.77, while the Dow slipped 23.22 points or 0.1 percent to 17,828.29 and the S&P 500 eased 0.44 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,090.10. In economic news, the National Association of Realtors reported that pending home sales surged to their highest level in a decade in April. The Labor Department noted a bigger than expected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended May 21, while the Commerce Department reported a sharp jump in durable goods orders in April. Also, the price of crude oil for July delivery edged down $0.08 to $49.48 a barrel after climbing above $50 a barrel for the first time since October.