The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) closed 16.34 points or 0.3 percent lower on Wednesday with the index of 45 most liquid stocks down 0.54 percent to 931.19 points.
"Technical factors blocked the IHSG from returning to the positive areas. Some market players decided to take profit from the price hike earlier," Asjaya Indosurya Securities analyst William Surya Wijaya said.
William said the chance of the IHSG to move to the positive areas is wide open amid the optimism of the market players with the government tax amnesty program.
The market players are optimistic that the tax amnesty policy would help drive the countrys economic growth, he said.
The optimism is reflected in the strong inflows of funds by foreign investors to the domestic market, he said.
Based on BEI data, foreign investors left a foreign net buy of Rp2.618 trillion in the first trading days of the week, he added.
"Foreign funds would shore up IHSG," he said.
HD Capital analyst Yuganur Wijanarko said the sentiment of economic data with the economic growth exceeding expectation still prevailed that profit taking caused only a slight fall of IHSG.
"The domestic sentiment would still encourage the market players to buy shares especially big capitalization shares and second layer shares," Yuganur said.
Trade on Wednesday recorded 331,341 transactions with 10.82 billion shares valued at Rp10.02 trillion changing hands.
Gainers outnumbered decliners by 168 to 159 with 99 other shares stagnant.
Regional markets such as Hang Seng and Straits Times gained but Nikkei recorded a decline in index.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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