The Indonesia stock market has climbed higher in back-to-back sessions, improving more than 100 points or 1.4 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just beneath the 7,175-point plateau and it's expected to see little movement on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were slightly lower and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The JCI finished modestly higher on Wednesday following gains from the food and telecom stocks, while the financials and resource companies were mixed.
For the day, the index advanced 63.72 points or 0.90 percent to finish at 7,174.53 after trading between 7,126.85 and 7,191.18.
Among the actives, Bank CIMB Niaga slumped 1.31 percent, while Bank Mandiri soared 3.30 percent, Bank Danamon Indonesia collected 0.36 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia advanced 0.95 percent, Bank Central Asia spiked 2.31 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia stumbled 1.42 percent, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison jumped 2.06 percent, Indocement tumbled 1.92 percent, Semen Indonesia declined 1.64 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur added 0.41 percent, United Tractors shed 0.40 percent, Astra International tanked 2.29 percent, Energi Mega Persada dropped 0.94 percent, Astra Agro Lestari fell 0.38 percent, Aneka Tambang plunged 3.45 percent, Vale Indonesia surrendered 3.22 percent, Timah plummeted 6.19 percent and Bumi Resources rallied 2.91 percent.
The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and flat and basically ended the same way.
The Dow shed 42.77 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 38,460.92, while the NASDAQ rose 16.11 points or 0.10 percent to close at 15,712.75 and the S&P 500 perked 1.08 points or 0.02 percent to end at 5,071.63.
A positive reaction to the latest corporate earnings news limited any downside on Wall Street, thanks to the likes of Tesla (TSLA), Texas Instruments (TXN), Visa (V) and Mattel (MAT).
Buying interest waned soon thereafter, however, with traders still worried about the outlook for interest rates ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders will look for clues about the possibility of future rate cuts.
Oil prices dropped on Wednesday amid concerns about the outlook for demand and on easing tensions in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended down by $0.55 at $82.81 a barrel.
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