Symbolic imageIndonesia drops tightly held stocks from index to head off MSCI downgrade
Indonesia's stock exchange will drop 80 tightly held stocks from its benchmark index to head off an MSCI downgrade. Shares kept falling on Monday.
The Jakarta Composite Index fell for a second straight session on Monday, 19 October, to its lowest level in six years, after MSCI said on Friday, 16 October, that it was weighing a move to standalone market status. Handelsblatt reports losses of more than 11% on Friday and a further 4% on Monday, the steepest slide since the 1990s Asian crisis. Exchange chief Jeffrey Hendrik said the exchange had received no prior warning. After an online conference with MSCI on Monday afternoon, the exchange decided to remove all stocks with high shareholding concentration from the index, according to Nikkei Asia.
Index change and trading curbs
The excluded stocks account for 18% of the index weighting, Nikkei Asia reports. The exchange also lowered the lower auto-rejection limit for certain stocks, and regulators are stepping up enforcement.
What is at stake
Handelsblatt says MSCI has long criticised weak transparency and suspected price manipulation, and the government planned to present transparency measures. Reuters puts the potential fallout at $65 billion, while the New York Times links investor unease to President Prabowo Subianto's policies.