The Indonesia stock market has moved lower in back-to-back trading days, surrendering more than 90 points or 1.5 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now rests just above the 6,270-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is negative thanks to geopolitical concerns after U.S. strikes in Syria. The European markets were up, and the U.S. bourses were down - and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The JCI finished modestly lower on Friday as losses from the food and resources stocks were mitigated by support from the financial shares.
For the day, the index lost 40.47 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 6,270.33 after trading between 6,270.33 and 6,335.21. There were 203 decliners and 152 gainers, with 129 stocks finishing unchanged.
Among the actives, Bank MNC Internasional soared 3.92 percent, while XL Axiata tumbled 2.24 percent, Bukit Darmo Property spiked 2.06 percent, Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food skidded 1.60 percent, Lotte Chemical jumped 0.99 percent, Jasa Marga dropped 0.86 percent, Bank Pan Indonesia collected 0.47 percent and Bumi Resources, Bank Mandiri, Bank Danamon Indonesia, Voksel Electric and SLJ Global were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street suggests mild consolidation as stocks failed to hold an initial upward move on Friday and finished in the red - offsetting gains from the previous session.
The Dow slid 122.91 points or 0.50 percent to 24,360.14, the NASDAQ dropped 33.60 points or 0.47 percent to 7,106.65 and the S&P fell 7.69 points or 0.29 percent to 2,656.30. For the week, the NASDAQ surged 2.8 percent, the S&P gained 2 percent and the Dow added 1.8 percent.
The initial strength was a positive reaction to earnings news from financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC) - which all beat estimates.
Buying interest waned shortly after the open, however, ahead of this week's earnings news that includes Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), IBM (IBM), American Express (AXP), and General Electric (GE).
Crude oil futures surged amid expectations OPEC has re-balanced the oil markets with its supply quota plan. The cartel is determined to put a floor under oil prices around $70 a barrel, analysts say. WTI sweet crude was up 32 cents or 0.5 percent to $67.39/bbl for a weekly gain of 8.8 percent.
Closer to home, Indonesia will see March data for imports, exports and trade balance later today. In February, imports were worth $14.21 billion, and exports were at $14.10 billion for a trade deficit of $0.11 billion.
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