Indonesian state-owned fund ready to increase investment after stock market plunge

JAKARTA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia's state-owned social security fund BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, one of the country's biggest institutional investors, is ready to increase equity investment amid plans by the exchange to double the minimum free float of stocks, its investment director said on Wednesday.

About $120 billion in market value has been swept away from Indonesia's stocks since index provider MSCI warned last month the country risked a downgrade to frontier market status because available market data obscures stock ownership and trading practices.

Indonesia plans to raise the minimum level of free float, or freely tradable stocks, to 15%, from 7.5% now, over time as part of reform proposals to address MSCI's concerns.

BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, which manages assets worth 900.7 trillion rupiah ($53.69 billion), would stand ready to buy some of the newly issued stocks with strong fundamentals, in line with the fund's target to raise stock market exposure to up to 25% by 2028, its investment director Edwin Ridwan said in an interview.

($1 = 16,775.0000 rupiah)