Banking Sector Shares Hunted Again

Investors at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) were hunting banking sector shares during last week.

The maneuvers were made in anticipation of a BI Rate decrease after the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) indicated that there will be deflation this April.

Market players targeted shares of PT Bank Mandiri, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia, PT Bank Central Asia and PT Bank Danamon which afterwards triggered increases in other banks’ shares.


During last week, shares of Bank Mandiri increased by 7.69 percent from Rp2,925 to Rp3,150 per share; BCA by 5.83 percent from Rp5,150 to Rp5,450; Bank Danamon by 4.62 percent from Rp6,500 to Rp6,800; and BRI by 2.86 percent from Rp5,250 to Rp5,400 per share.

Rafdi Prima, an analyst from PT Sriwijaya Permana Sekuritas, said that the increases occurred because banking shares will still be prospective within the medium term.

Nonetheless, according to him, share price of the sector is already overbought with quite high earnings per share (EPS).

“Today, the banking PER is approaching a P/E market ratio by 23 times. So, investors should be careful,” he said.
According to Rafdi, investors should see the “number” in the four banks' share.

As for BRI shares he said, investors should first of all carry out corrections.

“If the level of Rp5,650 were passed, prepare to buy for it has the potential to reach Rp6,000 per share,” he said.

Christine Salim, Head of Research at PT Samuel Sekuritas, has also advised investors to control purchase accumulation of banking shares.

She said that this was because blue chip shares were sensitive to profit-taking.

“Investors should wait for priced to be corrected first if they intended to take a positive buying-position in banking shares,” said Christine.

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tempo