JAKARTA. This week, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) recorded highest trade volume ever in history by securing a sale of 39.04 billion of shares and 428,640 transactions on Thursday (27/10).

The transaction value on that day once amounted Rp 9 trillion, however, the average daily transaction value remained stood at Rp 6.5 trillion. This is because the most actively traded shares were the minor price sahres, including the shares of Bakrie Group.

Six out of ten most actively traded shares were the shares of Bakrie Group’s issuers, such as PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk (ENRG), PT Dharma Henwa Tbk (DEWA), PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI), PT Bumi Resources Minerals Tbk (BMRS), PT Bakrieland Development Tbk (ELTY), and Bakrie Sumatra Plantations Tbk (UNSP).

The shares prices of the six issuers had once dropped to Rp 50 per a share. This was the lowest price ever in trading at IDX’s regular market. In the future, the shares may still move in unpredictable manner due to the sentiments of commodities prices and the corporate action of each issuer.

Analyst at First Asia Capital David Nathatael Sutyanto agreed that the active buying in Bakrie Group shares had boosted the transaction volume of IDX. He said that the transaction volume in IDX will remain high as long as the investors remain active in buying.

Head of Research Department at Universal Broker Indonesia Satrio Utomo said that the high transaction frequency in the shares of Bakrie Group was mainly supported by the coal price rise. According to Satrio, speculation has it that the coal price may return back to US$100 per ton. This will bring positive sentiments to coal issuers.

Transaction target Meanwhile, IDX estimated that the Bakrie Group shares’ movement did not necessarily increase the value of trade at IDX, said Director of Transaction and Compliance Supervision at IDX Hamdi Hassyarbaini.

The average daily transactions value, which remained unchanged, support the argument. However, Hamdi was optimistic that the daily transactions value may reach IDR6.6 trillion by the end of this year.

The increase in daily transactions value may be driven by the improvement in IDX liquidity. Compared with other stock exchanges in South East Asia region, IDX recorded the highest growth in stock exchange capitalization. Recently, the value of domestic stock exchange capitalization grew by 20% to IDR5.853 trillion compared with the last year.

As of the close of trading on Friday (28/10), the average daily transaction increased to 6.6 billion shares per day. Likewise, the average daily transactions reached 256,394 times.

Hamdi said that the trend of some investors to hunt for high risk shares is still reasonable, According to Hamdi, despite of poor fundamentals, investors estimated that the issuers have positive business prospects. “Fundamentals are more historical, while some investors prefer to consider the prospects”, he said. However, Hamdi ensured that IDX will continue to monitor the trade at stock exchange. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)

Editor: Sanny Cicilia