Indonesia financial authorities move to support slumping stocks

JAKARTA -- Indonesia's financial authorities on Wednesday loosened the reins on companies wanting to buy back shares and verbally intervened to support stock prices, but the central bank held its policy rate steady after the country's benchmark index plunged to a multi-year low a day earlier.

The financial services authority (OJK) said listed companies can now buy back shares without shareholders' approval. "With the buyback relaxation policy," said Inarno Djajadi, the OJK's chief executive of capital market supervision, "we hope to give a positive signal that the company has good fundamentals and provide market confidence to investors."