Indonesian stocks fall after exchange plans to tighten supervision

The Indonesian benchmark Jakarta Composite Index fell as much as 1.7% intraday before paring some of the decline. The index showed broad-based losses, with all 11 sectoral gauges retreating. Key drags included Bank Central Asia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bayan Resources. The Indonesia Stock Exchange plans to tighten oversight of suspected stock manipulation through targeted investigations and restrictions on trading accounts, CEO Jeffrey Hendrik said Monday at a press conference in Jakarta. At the same press conference, capital market supervision chief Hasan Fawzi said the Financial Services Authority will publish a list of entities recently sanctioned for stock manipulation after giving the relevant entities time to appeal the penalties. The news is slightly negative for the market because future trading regulation will be stricter, said Wilbert Arifin, an analyst at Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia. The index will likely remain volatile as market participants digest recent developments and proposed policies.