Analyst discusses trading halt trend during IDX, IHSG drop on Tuesday

On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) made headlines when it decided to temporarily halt trading due to a significant drop in the IHSG by 5 percent. The halt was prompted by the sharp decline of two major stocks, PT DCI Indonesia (DCII) and PT Barito Renewables Energy (BREN), both of which experienced a 20 percent lower auto rejection (ARB).

Market analyst Yanuar Rizky shed light on the situation, explaining how the price of DCII shares had surged to Rp205,000 due to a strategy known as marking the close, which involves setting the closing price through a single large transaction. However, this sudden increase led to an automatic correction of 20 percent, triggering the ARB limit and placing immense pressure on the market.

Yanuar expressed concern about the impact of the tumbling prices of these two major stocks on the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) as a whole. He called on the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to investigate the transaction patterns in DCII and BREN, emphasizing the need to address extreme fluctuations that can disrupt the capital market.

Highlighting the issue of stock manipulation, Yanuar pointed out that the movement pattern of DCII’s price should have raised alarms in the stock exchange monitoring system, especially concerning short selling schemes like T+3 (three days of trade). He emphasized the importance of detecting and preventing market manipulation or insider trading in intraday trading scenarios like T+0, T+3, and T+5.

Yanuar drew a parallel to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s handling of the Wall Street crash in 2008 and wondered if OJK could adopt a similar approach in addressing cases of extreme market volatility. Despite the trading halt, normal trading resumed at 11:49:31, indicating the resumption of market activities. However, amidst less favorable economic conditions, including fiscal deficits and foreign hedge funds looking to capitalize on market instability, market conditions continued to be volatile.

The events at IDX on that Tuesday shed light on the importance of vigilant monitoring of market activities and the need for regulatory bodies to investigate and address instances of market manipulation promptly. The situation served as a reminder of the fragility of financial markets and underscored the necessity of maintaining transparency, fairness, and stability in trading practices to prevent incidents that could disrupt the overall market equilibrium.