JAKARTA: Indonesia will update MSCI with progress it has made for capital market reforms at a meeting this week, the Indonesian Stock Exchange said on Monday, after a warning by the index provider wiped tens of billions of dollars off its equity market.
About $120 billion in market value has been erased from Indonesia's capital market since MSCI late last month flagged concerns about ownership and transparency in stocks. Last week's bond rating outlook downgrade to negative by Moody's for Indonesia's government and companies worsened sentiment, triggering more capital flight from Southeast Asia's biggest economy. The IDX said in a statement it would hold a follow-up meeting with MSCI to discuss progress on Indonesia's reform proposals on the second week of February.
State news agency Antara reported the meeting will take place on Wednesday. Executives from the bourse and financial regulators had already held a virtual meeting with MSCI on February 2, during which Jakarta proposed disclosing names of shareholders with at least 1% ownership, providing more specific classifications of investor types and doubling the minimum free float of shares to address MSCI's concerns.
MSCI has not commented on Indonesian proposals nor the meeting. The IDX said its target is to release on its website data on disclosure this month, while investor classification with more granularity will be provided by the end of March. It also set a target of the end of March for regulations to raise the minimum free float level.
Five top officials with the bourse and financial regulator, OJK, have resigned in the wake of the market selloff.
MSCI's warning and Moody's outlook cut came amid rising investor concerns over central bank independence and fiscal health, as President Prabowo Subianto attempts to ramp up growth to 8%, from 5% now.
The rupiah hit a record low of 16,985 a dollar last month after Prabowo nominated his nephew, Thomas Djiwandono, to a top central bank job. The currency has strengthened slightly since, but it continued to hover near that level.
Djiwandono will be sworn in as deputy governor of Bank Indonesia later on Monday. He was previously vice finance minister.
The main stock index on Monday gained 0.98%. - Reuters
