While most Asian stock indices were in the red zone on Friday (02/12), Indonesian stocks bucked the trend. Indonesia's benchmark Jakarta Composite Index rose 0.91 percent to 5,245.96 points, while the Indonesian rupiah appreciated 0.39 percent to IDR 13,512 per US dollar (Bloomberg Dollar Index). While global investors were cautious ahead of the new US payroll data (to be released later on Friday), domestic investors poured money into Indonesian stocks. What explains this performance today?

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In 2015 the crude oil supply glut stemming from OPEC countries and the US shale gas revolution put severe downward pressure on commodity prices, including crude palm oil (CPO). Thanks to the El Nino and La Nina weather phenomenons (and a moratorium on new palm oil concessions) CPO output was curtailed in 2015 and 2016, implying some upward pressure for CPO prices, hence rebounding from a multi-year low of USD $526 per ton in November 2015. In 2016 the CPO price is expected to average USD $670 per ton.

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Perhaps up to 150,000 protesters will gather in Central Jakarta today to demand the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki Cahaya Purnama (Ahok). Most of the demonstrators are members of hard-line Islamic groups who use the spread of a manipulated video (on social media) as an excuse to try to topple Christian, ethnic Chinese Governor Ahok. In this manipulated video Ahok is shown insulting the teachings of the Quran. Despite the case going to trial at the North Jakarta District Court, it is the second mass anti-Ahok rally in Jakarta.

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Credit growth in Indonesia improved in October 2016 after touching a low in the preceding month. In October credit growth in Indonesia was recorded at a pace of 7.4 percent year-on-year (y/y), reaching IDR 4,246.6 trillion (approx. USD $314.6 billion), accelerating from a growth pace of 6.4 percent (y/y) in September. This development is caused by Bank Indonesia's lower interest rates although the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election may have curtailed demand for credit due to the higher degree of uncertainty about future US political and economic policies.

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