Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Jakarta shares closed lower with composite index (JCI) down 0.44 percent on Wednesday on oil price hike in the world market, analysts said.

The index of the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI) fell 23.19 points to 4,887.86 with index of 45 most liquid stock down 0.54 percent to 824.86 points.

The prices of crude oil in the world market tend to rise as a result of the Iraqi conflict prompting share sales by investors for fear of larger losses, chief researcher of Trust Securities Reza Priyambada said.

Reza said the oil price hike also caused pressure on rupiah against the US dollar.

"Falling value of rupiah caused fear among investors that the countrys economy would suffer a setback," Reza said.

If the Iraqi war continues the share prices would likely to continue shrink, especially with no positive domestic sentiment, he said.

Meanwhile, HD Capitals analyst Yuganur Wijanarko said the JCI movements were relatively level looking for direction to determine the trend.

"The investors are still keeping an eye on the crisis in Iraq and watching inclination ahead of the presidential election," Yuganur said.

In addition, the market players are hoping that the financial reports of issuers would improve for the first semester of 2014, he said.

The country would elect its new president on July 9.

There were 181,574 transactions in trade on Wednesday with 2.68 billion share worth Rp3.47 trillion changing hands .

Decliners outnumbered decliners by 152 to 122 with 113 shares flat.

Regional markets such as Hang Seng posted a decline in index with Nikkei and Straits Times gaining.

(SYS/H-ASG/A014)

Editor: Suryanto
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