Follow-Up: Jakarta Stocks Close Down 11% in Worst Day Since 1998 as MSCI Says Indonesia No Longer Merits Emerging-Market Status
Index provider MSCI said on October 16 that Indonesia's stock market no longer merits emerging-market status and proposed reclassifying the country as a 'standalone' market, a step that would remove Indonesian stocks from the global indexes tracked by funds worldwide. A day after MSCI opened consultations on the move, the selloff turned into a rout: the Jakarta Composite Index closed down about 11 percent, its steepest one-day drop since the 1998 Asian financial crisis, after an early plunge triggered a 30-minute trading halt, and fell to a six-year low. The rupiah slid 0.6 percent to 18,070 per US dollar, its weakest level since late July. MSCI, which froze Indonesia in its indexes in January over opacity in ownership and trading, said reforms had not made sufficient progress and that 'significant concerns remain around market dysfunction,' adding that even a frontier-market downgrade would not reflect the severity of the problems. UBS estimated the change could trigger about $4 billion in passive outflows, with active investors potentially adding a further $15 billion; foreign investors have already net sold $4.7 billion of Indonesian stocks in 2026. Senior economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said there was 'a big question mark' over why MSCI had not raised the standalone downgrade during a meeting in Bangkok this week. (GSM, via Reuters)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：印度尼西亚首都雅加达天际线，左侧为国家纪念碑。图片来源：Stenly Lam，CC BY 2.0。Photo: Jakarta skyline with the National Monument (Monas). Photo: Stenly Lam, CC BY 2.0.
