Indonesia markets: MSCI review rattles equities; official response underway
Equity volatility rises.
Group Research - Econs, Radhika Rao30 Jan 2026
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The fallout of the MSCI index review continued to reverberate through Indonesia’s equity markets on Thursday, though the benchmark index pared losses by close on supportive commentary by the regulators. MSCI had concluded its free float assessment of local securities earlier in the week, calling for steps to improve transparency in shareholding structures and details on other trading action. While applying an interim freeze on certain index related changes, the agency has called for relevant changes by May 2026. Absence of mitigating action might result in either a weighting reduction of the securities within the EM indices and/ a potential reclassification in the country market status (Indonesia’s weightage in the index ~1.1-1.2%). For now, impact is relatively localised to the equity markets, which explains the modest incremental pressure on the currency (helped also by a lower dollar) as well as stable bonds. The sellers’ pack was led by retail and domestic institutional investors, alongside foreign outflows of ~$0.74mn this week, just as passive and benchmark driven investors monitor developments. The share of foreign ownership in domestic stocks has been moderating in the past couple of years, down to about a third from nearly half in 2024-2025.

Domestic regulators are likely to improve clarity and transparency in securities trading after consultations with key stakeholders. Investors might, meanwhile, see value in picking quality names or blue-chip counters when this broad-based correction eases. On Thu, regulators unveiled supportive measures, including a potential doubling in the minimum free float requirements for listed companies to ~15% by next month, while the state investment agency Danantara considers boosting its presence in the capital markets. There are also plans to exclude investors in the corporate and other categories from the free float calculation and then publish shareholdings above and below 5% for each ownership category. We expect more affirmative steps to assuage concerns of the investor community and global index providers, while ironing out opacity of business structure and any remnant governance issues in the medium-term. 

Radhika Rao

Senior Economist – Eurozone, India, Indonesia
[email protected]
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