Almost Halt Trading Again, IHSG Closed Monday Afternoon Down 4.42 Percent To 4,690.66

JAKARTA - The Composite Stock Price Index (IHSG) closed lower and almost approached halt trading or was temporarily suspended because the drop was almost 5 percent. Monday, March 16 this afternoon, JCI fell 216.81 points or 4.42 percent to 4,690.66.

There were 69 stocks rose, 351 shares fell, and 94 stocks were stagnant. Trade transactions reached IDR 6.3 trillion from 5.52 billion shares traded.

Binaartha Sekuritas analyst M. Nafan Aji Gustama said the aggressive spread of COVID-19 and declared an international pandemic by WHO was a threat to global economic growth.

"In fact, the Fed needs to set a reduction in the benchmark interest rate from 1.25 percent to 0.25 percent and launch a quantitative easing program of 700 billion US dollars to combat the negative effects of the virus outbreak on the performance of the US economy," Nafan told VOI.

On the other hand, he said, stock exchanges in Asia and Europe experienced a deep decline, which gave a negative economic domino effect for the JCI movement.

This afternoon, the shares that entered the top gainers, namely shares of PT Makmur Berkah Amanda Tbk (AMAN) rose IDR 51 or 34.46 percent to IDR199, shares of PT Majapahit Inti Corpora Tbk (AKSI) rose IDR 38 or 16.52 percent to IDR268, and shares of PT City Retail Developments Tbk (NIRO) increased by IDR 18 or 13.14 percent to IDR 155.

As for the stocks that entered the top losers, among others, shares of PT Media Nusantara Citra Tbk (MNCN) fell IDR 79 or 7 percent to IDR 930, shares of PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk (UNVR) fell IDR 525 or 7 percent to IDR 6,975, and shares of PT HM Sampoerna Tbk (HMSP) decreased IDR105 or 6.95 percent to IDR1,405.