Jakarta Index Falls 3.49 Points On Friday

Jakarta, March 22(Antara) - The composite share price index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) fell 3.49 points in Friday opening trade to follow global trend. "The majority of Asian markets dropped with negative sentiment from Europe which also weakened the Dow Jones," the chief researcher of Universal Broker Indonesia, Satrio Utomo, said here on Friday. The BEI index fell 3.49 points or 0.07 percent to 4,799.19 points with index of 45 most liquid stock (LQ45) shrinking 0.87 points or 0.11 percent to 815.26. Satrio said a fall in German manufacturing data and Cyprus` debt rating cut by Standard & Poor`s (S&P) contributed to the global market decline. "The negative sentiment put pressure on the BEI index. In addition, pressure also came from coal stocks, he said. Coal stocks have been under pressure as investors got pessimistic with the coal prospects in 2013, he said. Samuel Sekuritas` analyst Adrianus Bias said S&P had reduced the Cyprus debt rating to triple C with negative outlook on uncertainty over bailout fund earlier promised by the European Union to shore up its banking system. "The negative sentiments caused downtrend movement in stock prices in Europe, the United States and Asia. The condition is worse with unexpected fall in German manufacturing data in March," Adrianus said. He predicted, however, that after falling from their peaks , a number of stocks like property, construction, banking and mining stocks would fall deeper. Regional markets Hang Seng fell 0.19 percent in index to 22,182.91 points , Nikkei-225 was down 1.36 percent to 12,463.34 points and Straits Times weakened 0.27 percent to 3,258.90 points.