‘Panic’ selling hits Indonesian markets on MSCI expulsion threat

By Ankur Banerjee and Stefanno Sulaiman SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, Oct 19 (Reuters) Indonesian stocks slid to a six-year low on Monday in a record two-day rout and the rupiah fell after a warning from MSCI over possible expulsion from its global indexes next year, heaping pressure on Jakarta to respond to the index provider s concerns. Jakarta s benchmark stocks fell over 5% on Monday after ​plunging 11.6% on Friday, as the world s worst performers reeled from index provider MSCI saying it was considering shifting Indonesia ‌to standalone status from its current emerging markets mantle. The MSCI announcement was unexpected to us, causing a market panic, the Indonesia Stock Exchange said in a statement ahead of a meeting between the exchange leaders and MSCI executives later in the day. On Monday, the exchange halved its down limit to 7% to try to slow the selling. A shift to standalone status would risk cutting Southeast Asia s biggest economy off from international capital, relegate i