Brokers yesterday warned that Indonesia could face a prolonged bout of 'Deng syndrome', as rumours about President Suharto's health sent the stock market plummeting for the second day running. The Composite Index fell 2.3 per cent to 575.05 points by the end of the day's trading after falling 0.92 per cent on Thursday. The rupiah was also hit hard. In Singapore, it ended at 2,342 to the US dollar, and has fallen about 16 rupiah since Thursday morning. Yesterday's fall followed confirmation by State Secretary Murdiono that Mr Suharto was planning to go to Europe for medical treatment. Mr Murdiono declined to give details of the 75-year-old president's ailments, fuelling speculation about his health. A broker with a foreign investment house said: 'This could be a taste of things to come. We may be in for a bout of Deng syndrome,' referring to the sharp sell-offs in Hong Kong that often follow rumours about the health of China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping. Steven Koh, of broker Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia Securities, said: 'It is getting quite volatile. It [reports about Mr Suharto's health] sparked a major sell-off particularly of index stocks - the heavy blue chips.' He said stocks with presidential connections, such as Bimantara Citra, controlled by the president's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, and Citra Marga, controlled by daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, were among the worst hit. Others analysts said the reports could not have come at a worse time. Confidence was only just recovering after a damaging political dispute involving leadership of the country's main opposition party, the Indonesian Democratic Party. 'It's just a factor of all the uncertainty,' said another foreign analyst. 'How you put a price on uncertainty I'm not sure, but it is certainly not the happy situation here that it was a couple of months ago.'
