JAKARTA — Foreign investors have continued to reduce their exposure to Indonesian equities, but local market participants have absorbed most of the shares being sold.

According to the IDX and RTI snapshot supplied for July 28, foreign investors recorded Rp94.09 trillion in year-to-date net selling through the regular market.

The all-market outflow was smaller, at Rp79.91 trillion, because foreign investors remained net buyers of approximately Rp14.18 trillion through the negotiated and cash markets.

The structure reveals more than a simple capital-outflow headline. Foreign selling has been concentrated in the public order book, while off-order-book transactions have partly offset the total.

The Indonesia Stock Exchange had reported Rp79.09 trillion in cumulative foreign net selling as of July 24. Further outflows during the following sessions increased the total toward Rp79.91 trillion.

Regular-Market Selling Has the Most Direct Price Effect

The regular market is where public buy and sell orders compete through the exchange’s trading system. Transactions in that market directly contribute to the quoted prices investors see during the session.

Negotiated-market transactions operate differently. The buyer and seller generally agree on the volume and price before executing the trade.

They may involve block transfers, institutional restructuring or other movements that do not pass through the visible public order book.

The year-to-date figures can be reconciled as follows:

Rp94.09 trillion regular-market net selling − Rp14.18 trillion negotiated-and-cash net buying = Rp79.91 trillion all-market net selling.

The distinction is economically important. Selling through the regular market can place more immediate pressure on share prices, even when negotiated transactions reduce the final all-market outflow.

Foreign Investors Accounted for 35.96% of Turnover

Total equity-trading activity reached approximately Rp2,976.9 trillion during the year-to-date period.

Foreign investors represented 35.96% of that activity. Their purchases totalled Rp1,030.6 trillion, equivalent to 17.31% of the market, while their sales reached Rp1,110.5 trillion, or 18.65%.

The data show that foreign institutions remain influential even though they no longer dominate the exchange.

Their transactions often involve large, liquid companies that carry significant weight in the Jakarta Composite Index.

Domestic Capital Has Become the Market’s Main Counterparty

Indonesian investors accounted for 64.04% of total trading value.

Domestic purchases reached Rp1,946.3 trillion, or 32.69% of total activity. Sales amounted to Rp1,866.4 trillion, equivalent to 31.35%.

The difference produced a domestic net purchase broadly matching the foreign net outflow.

This is not a coincidence. Every completed transaction must have both a buyer and a seller. When foreign investors sell more Indonesian shares than they buy, domestic investors collectively absorb the difference.

Local participation therefore provides an important liquidity buffer.

It does not guarantee that prices will remain stable. Domestic buyers may only be willing to purchase at lower prices, particularly when international institutions are reducing large positions in index-heavy stocks.

The Volume Data Show Even Greater Domestic Dominance

Approximately 5.3 trillion shares changed hands during 2026 through July 28.

Foreign investors contributed 21.45% of the total volume. Their purchases represented about 1.1 trillion shares, or 10.56%, while foreign sales totalled roughly 1.2 trillion shares, or 10.89%.

Domestic investors controlled 78.55% of trading volume. They purchased approximately 4.2 trillion shares and sold about 4.1 trillion.

Foreign investors’ share of transaction value was significantly higher than their share of volume.

That pattern suggests that international institutions tend to trade higher-priced or larger-capitalisation stocks, while domestic activity is distributed across a wider range of securities.

The difference also helps explain why foreign flows can have an outsized effect on the benchmark despite representing only about one-fifth of total share volume.

Another Rp1 Trillion Left on Tuesday

Foreign investors recorded approximately Rp1.07 trillion in net selling across all markets on July 28.

Regular-market net selling amounted to Rp788.57 billion, while the negotiated and cash markets contributed a further Rp276.89 billion in net outflows.

A separate market report placed the total at Rp1.06 trillion. The small difference is consistent with rounding or separate data-extraction times.

Foreign purchases during the session reached approximately Rp3.3 trillion, compared with sales of Rp4.4 trillion.

Domestic investors purchased about Rp7.6 trillion and sold Rp6.6 trillion. Local capital again acted as the principal buyer of the shares being released by foreign accounts.

The JCI Closed at Its Intraday Low

The Jakarta Composite Index declined 55.195 points, or 0.89%, to 6,130.588.

It opened at 6,175.198 and briefly advanced to an intraday high of 6,199.440. Selling intensified during the afternoon, taking the benchmark to 6,130.588—the day’s lowest point and closing level.

Public market reports confirmed that the index lost approximately 55.19 points to finish near 6,130, with turnover around Rp10.7 trillion.

A close at the session low usually indicates that sellers retained control into the final auction rather than losing momentum before trading ended.

Market breadth was also negative. A total of 360 shares declined, 265 advanced and 172 were unchanged.

Approximately 25.456 billion shares were traded through 1.68 million transactions. The supplied RTI figures placed turnover at Rp10.921 trillion and total IDX market capitalisation at Rp10,775.76 trillion.

Does Foreign Selling Equal Capital Flight?

The Rp79.91 trillion figure represents net selling of listed shares, not necessarily an identical amount of money permanently leaving Indonesia.

After selling stocks, an investor may hold cash in rupiah, purchase Indonesian bonds, execute a negotiated transaction or later reinvest in another security.

Confirmed capital flight would also depend on foreign-exchange conversion and cross-border settlement data.

The equity-flow number nevertheless remains important because sustained selling can affect the market through several channels.

It can pressure heavily weighted index stocks, weaken investor sentiment and create additional demand for foreign currency when proceeds are repatriated.

The effect becomes stronger when selling occurs alongside rupiah depreciation, weak earnings expectations or higher global interest rates.

Aggregate Data Do Not Explain Motivation

The flow statistics show what foreign investors did, but not why they did it.

Selling may result from changes in global asset allocation, index rebalancing, currency-risk management, redemptions from investment funds or company-specific concerns.

It is therefore misleading to treat every foreign sale as a negative assessment of Indonesia’s entire economy.

A manager may reduce exposure to one large bank while purchasing a mining, consumer or infrastructure company. Those transactions can still produce an overall net outflow.

Stock-level data, sector allocations and the duration of the selling trend are required before drawing stronger conclusions.

Local Strength Reduces Dependence, Not Volatility

Indonesia’s increasingly domestic market structure provides resilience.

Local investors control almost four-fifths of trading volume and nearly two-thirds of transaction value. This participation ensures that the exchange continues functioning even during persistent foreign selling.

The same figures also show that foreign investors retain substantial influence over price formation in major companies.

Domestic capital can absorb supply without immediately reversing the market’s direction. It may stabilise liquidity while prices continue adjusting downward.

A more convincing improvement would require a reduction in foreign net selling, broader positive market breadth, stronger turnover and renewed demand for large-cap stocks.

Until those conditions emerge, Indonesia’s equity market may remain volatile even though domestic investors continue to provide a substantial liquidity cushion.

Disclaimer: This article is intended solely for informational and educational purposes. The market-flow figures and index data do not constitute personalised investment advice, a recommendation or an invitation to buy or sell any security.