Sun: Wall Street trips TASE

Distribution of the shares with which Retalix paid for its TCI acquisition pushed down the Retalix share, while a threat from Osama Bin Laden helped Magal Security, and a very big Intel contract boosted Baran.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) fell today. The Tel Aviv 25 index was down 0.20% at 836.82 points, the Tel Aviv 100 index lost 0.02% to 857.88 points, and the Tel-Tech 15 index fell 0.87% to 450.13 points. Turnover totaled NIS 836 million.

The trading week opened with falling prices, following Friday’s steep drop in New York, which caused negative arbitrage gaps in dual listed shares. Another factor contributing to the negative trend was uncertainty regarding the upcoming elections in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and concern that Hamas would win them. A market source said that elections in the PA and Israel were a factor that would disturb the market in the near future.

Trading turnover today was low. The bond market was stable, with Shahar bonds dipping 0.04%, and Galil bonds 0.08%.

Bank Leumi continued to attract interest. Trading in the share today was affected by the bank’s plan to sell some of its holdings in Migdal Insurance and Africa Israel Investments. The share rose 0.27%, while Bank Hapoalim gained 0.09%. Israel Discount Bank was up 1.2%, and First International Bank of Israel 1.4%, despite its long-standing labor dispute.

Investment bank UBS today distributed 430,000 Retalix shares, representing 2.5% of the company’s capital, for NIS 51 million, at NIS 118 per share. The share distribution was on behalf of a number of foreign and Isralei investment institutions. When software company Retalix acquired TCI last April from four venture capital funds, it paid for part of the acquisition in shares. Following the publication of a prospectus in November for selling the blocked shares, it became possible to start the process of distributing the shares. Distribution of the share began on Friday in New York, and in Tel Aviv today. The price of the shares was 2.6% below today’s opening price, and the share fell 1.32% today.

MA (Makhteshim-Agan) Industries, which makes insecticides and other products for plants, announced today the founding of a subsidiary in China. The new company will be used to outsource raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and to distribute MA Industries’ products to the Chinese agrochemical market. MA Industries rose 0.19%.

A video recording of Osama Bin Laden was released last week, in which he threatened another attack like the one on September 11, 2001, in response to US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Publication of the recording boosted security shares on Nasdaq. Israeli company Magal Security Systems rose 8% on Nasdaq on Friday, and jumped 10.9% today on the TASE, on four times its average turnover.

Baran Group, which provides engineering and project management services, announced today that it had won a tender to build an office complex for Intel’s Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat. The tender is worth over $100 million. Baran’s share leaped 11.06% in response.

Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 22, 2006

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