Indonesia’s stock market is facing one of its sharpest crises in decades, with a warning from global index provider MSCI triggering a historic sell-off and raising fears of billions of dollars in foreign capital outflows.
The Jakarta Composite Index plunged as much as 11.57% on Friday, October 16, marking its steepest single-day fall since January 1998.
The sell-off prompted a 30-minute trading halt after the benchmark opened nearly 8% lower.
The rout has compounded a prolonged decline in Indonesian equities, which have lost nearly 40% this year, making the market one of the worst performers globally.
The immediate trigger was MSCI’s proposal to move Indonesia to “standalone” market status, a classification below both emerging and frontier markets.