The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 2.35% to 866.15 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 1.98% to 791.03 points, and the Tel-Tech rose 2.12% to 175.71 points. Turnover was NIS 2.76 billion. For the week, the Tel Aviv 25 Index was up 0.6%.
The TASE will be closed Thursday for the Shavuot holiday.
Massive premarket trading for the expiry of Tel Aviv 25 Index options for May caused a six-minute delay in the opening of the market today. The index for the expiry was set at 871.95 points, 3% above the opening level. Trading volume was NIS 900 million. The gains eased during the session as futures contracts on Wall Street pointed to a lower opening.
Long-term Shahar unlinked government bonds were unchanged while long-term Galil CPI-linked bonds fell by up 0.2%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index fell 0.17%.
In the foreign currency market, the shekel-dollar exchange rate fell 0.2% to NIS 3.992/$ and the shekel-euro exchange rate fell 0.09% to NIS 5.547/€.
In the stock market, the banks serve as indicators of the market climate and the attitude of foreign investors to it, because they tend to invest in large companies listed on the Tel Aviv 25 Index, especially in bank shares.
The Banking Index rose 3%. Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI), which published a net profit of NIS 42 million for the first quarter yesterday, rose 2.5%. First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1;FTIN5), which today published a net profit of NIS 109 million today, saw its FTIN1 share rise 3.3% and its FTIN5 share rise 4%.
Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) and Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT), which will publish their first quarter financials on Sunday, rose 3% and 3.3%, respectively.
The Real Estate 15 Index rose 0.2% today. Amot Investments Ltd. (TASE:AMOT) rose 5% and Elbit Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT) rose 4%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 27, 2009
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