The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.85% to 1052.35 points, the Tel Aviv Index 100 Index rose 0.97% to 983.91 points, and the Tel-Tech Index rose 0.62% to 232.72 points. Turnover was NIS 1.31 billion.
The indices were lifted by the Banking Index and Real Estate Index, which helped reverse early falls after Wall Street fell on Friday. The Tel Aviv 25 hit a 15-month high.Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY) rose 15.7% on news of progress in the negotiations with bondholders for a debt settlement.
Local investors await the Bank of Israel's decision tomorrow evening on the interest rate for November. Most analysts expect the rate to remain at 0.75% after the fall in the CPI index earlier this month, but some analysts are forecasting a rise of 0.25%.
Long-term Shahar unlinked government bonds ranged between a rise of 0.1% and a fall of 0.1%, and long-term Galil CPI-linked bonds rose by up to 0.1%. The Tel-Bond 60 Index was unchanged.
In the foreign currency market, options trading point to 0.14% fall in the shekel-dollar exchange rate to NIS 3.697/$.
In the stock market, as well as the huge gains recorded by Africa-Israel, there was also a strong performance by Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL), which rose 10.6% after it published a report that its profit for the third quarter of 2009 will be higher than that published by Reuters and will exceed $7 per barrel.
Bezeq Israel Telecommunications Company Ltd. (TASE:BZEQ) rose 0.2% with a high trading volume against the background of its acquisition by Shaul Elovitch. 012 Smile.Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq:SMLC; TASE: SMLC), the company through which Elovitch acquired control of Bezeq, soared 35.9%.
Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) rose 5% despite negative sentiment in the agro-chemicals sector. In the past few days several of Israel Chemical's competitors have published negative information about their third quarter results.
The Banking Index rose 1.8% with Bank Hapoalim (LSE: 80OA; TASE: POLI) and Bank Leumi (TASE:LUMI) up 2.4% and 2% respectively.
The Real Estate Index rose 2.1%, and apart from the strong gains for Africa-Israel, there were smart rises for Kardan NV (TASE: KRNV;AEX:KARD), which was up 5.6% and Africa-Israel Properties Ltd. (TASE: AFPR), which ended up 4.6%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 25, 2009
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