IDX Mulls Trading Halt Amid Volatile Stock Market

Jakarta. The Indonesia Stock Exchange, or IDX, announced a new policy that includes a trading halt ro be imposed when share prices drop sharply, effective from Wednesday.

The halt may last 30 minutes or for the whole trading day, depending on the severity of the stock market crash.

"The Exchange will impose a trading halt for 30 minutes when the IHSG [composite share price index] drops by 5 percent," the IDX said in a statement.

Another 30 minutes of suspension will be added when the index falls further by 10 percent.

"The IDX will halt trading until the end of the session if the index continues to drop by more than 15 percent by the approval of the Financial Services Authority, or OJK," it said.

The new policy was based on an OJK directive issued on Tuesday. The IDX said the new policy is effective until further notice.

The index has lost more than 17 percent year-to-date amid global concerns about the coronavirus outbreak that has severely hit global travels and forced the isolation of China, where the virus started to infect humans.

The Indonesian government has taken several measures to prevent the index from declining further. On Tuesday, the government announced that at least 12 major state-owned companies might involve in a share buyback plan worth more than $550 million. 

The OJK has relaxed its share buyback rule to bypass an administrative requirement in favor of encouraging quick action from companies to stop the country's stock market from hemorrhaging. 

On Tuesday, the IDX began applying trade auto rejection on specific securities whose prices fell by 10 percent.