eBay Inc, a US-based global commerce platform and digital payments leader, plans to raise its stake in Indonesian e-commerce firm Metra Plasa from 40 percent to 49 percent. Currently, 60 percent of Metra Plasa is owned by Indonesia's largest telecommunication and network provider Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Telkom’s stake will thus decline to 51 percent. In 2012, eBay and Telkom (through Telkom’s subsidiary Multimedia Nusantara) established a joint venture to operate Metra Plasa.

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What were the important corporate news headlines from Indonesia on Friday 15 August 2014? Below Indonesia Investments presents the daily market roundup. This includes the following companies and topics: Indomarco Prismatama, Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Pan Brothers, Archipelago International, bonds auction, RPX Group, Mayora Indah, the Titab Dam project in Bali, Intiland Development, Agung Podomoro Land, Matahari Putra Prima, Berau Coal Energy, and Citra Marga Nusahpala Persada.

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What were the important corporate news headlines from Indonesia on Thursday 14 August 2014? Below Indonesia Investments presents the daily market roundup. This includes the following companies and topics: XL Axiata, Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Kalbe Farma, Telekomunikasi Seluler, Telkomsel, Golden Agri Resources, Matahari Putra Prima, Loop card, Lippo Group, Hypermarts, the Industry Ministry of Indonesia, technology businesses, and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

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The recently launched Investor33 Index has outperformed both the benchmark stock index of Indonesia (Jakarta Composite Index or IHSG), which contains all stocks that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and the LQ45 Index, a stock index which contains 45 Indonesian listed companies that fulfil certain criteria. In the first six months of 2014, the Investor33 Index climbed 16.36 percent, whereas the IHSG increased 14.14 percent and the LQ45 Index 15.68 percent.

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Telekomunikasi Indonesia (better known as Telkom) is Indonesia's largest telecommunication and network provider as well as one of the largest companies in Indonesia in terms of market capitalization. The company, majority owned by the Indonesian government, has a dominating market share of between 45 and 50 percent in terms of mobile phone subscribers in Indonesia. It is the parent company of the Telkom Group, which is engaged in a range of businesses that include telecommunication, multimedia, property and financial services.

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On 20 April 2014, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website in the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic topics such as comments on the future policy of Bank Indonesia, the investment climate in Batam, an updated profile of Telekomunikasi Indonesia, IPOs in 2014, an analysis of the unprocessed minerals export ban, and more.

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Beritasatu Media Holdings in cooperation with the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) officially launched its Index Investor33 on Friday (21/03). This index consists of 33 listed companies at the IDX that share strong fundamentals, assessed through both technical and fundamental analyses. According to Hoesen, Director of Corporate Valuation at the IDX, the 33 companies have influenced the performance of the Jakarta Composite Index (Indonesia's benchmark stock index) considerably in recent years.

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In recent years, the telecommunication sector of Indonesia has been a tough arena for mobile phone operators. In terms of voice services, the once highly prospective industry has become more and more saturated over the years. Amid fierce competition tariffs for mobile phone services have been brought down significantly, while a new group of subscribers (from the poorer segments of society) have limited spending capacity. However, with the introduction of the increasingly popular smartphone, there is still room for growth.

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In order to raise new funds for business expansion, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) is considering to list its subsidiary Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2014. Through its Telkomsel unit, Telkom is Indonesia’s leading provider of mobile telecommunications and digital data services. The company currently has around 125 million cellular subscribers in a sector where rife competition for cellular subscribers has limited net profits. Telkom, however, is the only Indonesian operator that posts strong growth.

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On Tuesday (26/11), Bank Indonesia's mid rate depreciated 0.37 percent to IDR 11,765 per US dollar, which is the lowest level the currency has touched since March 2009. Main reason for today's decline is the government's US dollar-denominated bond auction yesterday (25/11) that fell USD $450 million short of its target. The bond issuance was negatively impacted by investors' concern about the looming scaling back of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program as US economic data improve.

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Despite foreign investors recording a net buy on the Jakarta Composite Index on Thursday (31/10), a depreciating rupiah as well as falling stock indices across Asia made investors concerned. Thus, the benchmark index of Indonesia followed the pace of other Asian indices and ended on 4,510.63 points (a 1.40 percent fall). The outcome of the Federal Reserve's FOMC meeting did not support the rupiah. On the contrary, the rupiah fell after the Fed stated to continue quantitative easing but that the tapering may start sooner than expected.

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Indonesia's benchmark stock index (IHSG) was up 0.40 percent to 4,423.72 on Friday (27/09). The gain was mainly carried by demand for a number of Indonesian blue chip stocks. Astra International rose 1.16 percent after Deutsche Securities Indonesia, Credit Suisse Securities Indonesia and Citigroup Securities Indonesia increased their stakes in one of Indonesia's largest diversified conglomerates. Other blue chips that performed well were Perusahaan Gas Negara, Bank Mandiri, Telekomunikasi Indonesia and Indofood Sukses Makmur.

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Indonesia's largest company by market capitalization is still HM Sampoerna, the country's largest tobacco company. The company has been the top company in Indonesia since March 2013 when it replaced Astra International, Indonesia's largest diversified conglomerate, on the top spot. Astra had been Indonesia's largest company since 2010. Currently, the third-largest company in terms of market capitalization is Unilever Indonesia. Unilever, which is Indonesia’s largest consumer goods producer, jumped four places in the ranking since late 2012.

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For three consecutive days, Indonesia's main stock index (IHSG) had to cope with significant losses. On Tuesday (11/06), the index fell 3.50 percent to 4,609.95 points, considerably below its record high level of 5,214 on 20 May 2013. Foreign investors recorded a net sell of IDR 3.98 trillion (USD $406.1 million) as domestic conditions in Indonesia are unstable. Moreover, investors are concerned about governments (USA and Japan) that want to slow down their stimulus programs as various economic data are showing positive outcomes.

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Last week, I provided a basic introduction to investments in Indonesia's capital markets. Now, I will devote my column to the ten largest Indonesian companies by market capitalization. But first let me explain why I take the ten largest companies? Well, simply because these ten companies account for 43.71 percent of Indonesia's total market capitalization. In other words, they reflect almost half of the current condition of the country's capital markets.

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