Foreign Investor Stock Selling Continues, IHSG Falls Again

Foreign investors again sold off shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) after the long Idul Fitri holiday in 2018. This action is inseparable from the weakening Indonesian Rupiah, which fell to over Rp 14,000 per US dollar. As a result, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) once again fell below the 6,000 level.

On the first trading day after the Lebaran holiday, Wednesday, June 20th, the Jakarta stock exchange index closed down 109.59 points (1.82%), and foreign investors recorded a net sell of Rp 2.04 trillion. On the following day, the JCI fell another 61.71 points (1.01%), with foreign investors again recording a net sell of Rp 833.69 billion. Then, in the first session of trading on Friday, June 22nd, the index fell a further 25.95 points (0.45%).

Cumulatively, from January 2nd to June 21st, 2018, foreign investors recorded a net sell of Rp 47.16 trillion. In fact, from February to April, the net sell value of foreign investors consistently exceeded Rp 10 trillion. The ongoing uncertainty in the global financial market, particularly regarding the possibility of further interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve by the end of the year, led investors to secure their portfolios in US dollars. This caused the domestic stock index to fall again.