The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 index rose 1.45%, to 1,105.01 points; the Tel Aviv 100 index rose 1.46%, to 1,083.61 points; and the Tel-Tech index rose 0.86%, to 410.42 points. Turnover was NIS 2.64 billion.
The TASE may have halted the slide of the last two sessions today, but it continued to suffer from pretty volatile trading, after a hesitant start to the week on world markets. Tel Aviv opened trading with rises of up to 1.5% in the Tel Aviv 25 index, but when investors saw that other markets were not rising in line, the momentum in Tel Aviv weakened as well. In the afternoon the indices actually entered negative territory, and then moved up and down in accordance with the movement in futures on US indices, until the actual opening of trading on Wall Street, which turned out to be flat, which allowed the local indices to close higher. The foreign exchange market also had a volatile day, with the shekel left weaker against the US dollar at the close, while on the bond market prices rose.
The message of this chain of events is that although the TASE changed direction after two days of falls, in which the Tel Aviv 25 index shed almost 7%, the market is still highly sensitive, and it is impossible to say that the upset is behind us.
The more heavyweight stocks topped the trading tables, and their impact was mostly positive. Two days away from release of its second quarter financials, Teva rose 1%, while Israel Chemicals rose 2.6%, and Makhteshim-Agan 1.4%. The big two banks both rose amid volatile trading, Bank Hapoalim by 1.7%, and Bank Leumi by 0.8%, lifting the Banking Index 1.3%.
Elbit Systems stood out with a 3.8% rise, after a report in "Defense News" according to which the company is close to wining a share of a $1 billion contract to upgrade Indian warplanes. Super-Sol rose 7% after publishing good quarterly financials, and Africa-Israel shares rose 1.8%, helping the Real Estate Index rise 1.6%.
On the foreign exchange market, the shekel continued to weaken against the US dollar, with the representative rate being set 0.49% higher at 4.342, a 10-month high. In bonds, there was a slight correction, with long-term shekel bonds closing up to 0.5% higher.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 30, 2007
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