Indonesia stock index may regain record, Batavia says

Automotive, banks and property stocks may lead gains, said Ruddy Raharjo, head of investment at Batavia, Indonesia's sixth- best performing fund in the past five years. The Jakarta Composite Index reached a record of 2,830.26 in January last year, before falling 61 percent to its October low. The measure has risen 71 percent this year.

Shares are rebounding as Indonesia posted the fastest growth among Southeast Asian nations even as the global economy remained in recession. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's re-election last month raised expectations the government will maintain policies that helped the economy to expand 4 percent in the second quarter and curb inflation to a nine-year low.

“People were expecting company earnings to be devastated because of slumping consumption, but that didn't happen,” Raharjo, who manages the equivalent of about US$550 million, said in an interview in Jakarta on Aug. 18. The market is “returning to its proper level,” he added.

Optimism over Yudhoyono's economic policies after his re- election overshadowed terrorist attacks last month. The measure surged 15 percent in July, the sixth-best among 89 indexes worldwide tracked by Bloomberg, even after the bomb blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the capital city of Jakarta killed nine people.

PT Optima Kharya Capital Securities, part of Indonesia's Optima group, whose fund was voted best mutual fund in the past two years by Indonesia's Majalah Investor magazine, said recent gains have outpaced earnings potential. It predicts the Jakarta Composite may fall as much as 10 percent in the next month. The index rose 1.9 percent to 2,320.22 as of 11:44 a.m. Jakarta time, after losing 4.6 percent in the previous two days.

“It will be a healthy correction,” Arief Budiman, head of research at Optima, said in an interview in Jakarta on Aug. 18.

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