The Indonesia stock market has finished lower in three straight sessions, tumbling almost 220 points or 3 percent along the way. The Jakarta Composite Index now sits just above the 7,160-point plateau although it\'s due for support on Tuesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets offers little clarity with the outlook for interest rates shrouded in uncertainty. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The JCI finished sharply lower on Monday with damage across the board, although the financial shares were especially hard hit.
For the day, the index plunged 127.46 points or 1.75 percent to finish at 7,161.35.
Among the actives, Bank Mandiri plummeted 4.83 percent, while Bank Danamon Indonesia tanked 2.01 percent, Bank Negara Indonesia plunged 4.24 percent, Bank Central Asia tumbled 2.23 percent, Bank Rakyat Indonesia slumped 2.07 percent, Indocement rallied 2.00 percent, Semen Indonesia fell 0.42 percent, Indofood Sukses Makmur gained 0.78 percent and United Tractors lost 0.62 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened slightly higher on Monday but spent most of the day in the red, although the NASDAQ ticked back up into the green by the session\'s end.
The Dow slumped 240.52 points or 0.60 percent to finish at 39,566.85, while the NASDAQ added 17.37 points or 0.11 percent to close at 16,396.83 and the S&P 500 fell 10.58 points or 0.20 percent to end at 5,243.77.
The early strength on Wall Street came as traders finally had an opportunity to react to last Friday\'s closely watched U.S. consumer price inflation data, which largely matched expectations.
Buying interest remained somewhat subdued, however, as traders expressed uncertainty about whether inflation is slowing quickly enough to guarantee the interest rate cuts expected by the Federal Reserve.
The subsequent pullback by stocks came as a report from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly showing modest growth in U.S. manufacturing activity in March contributed to a jump by Treasury yields.
Oil prices moved higher Monday amid concerns about a possible drop in supplies following reports of an Israeli strike near the Iranian embassy in Damascus. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for May ended higher by $0.54 or 0.65 percent at $83.71 a barrel.