The shekel is continuing a recent trend of weakness against the dollar.
The shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.11% to NIS 3.7331/$, and the shekel-euro exchange rate is down 0.19% to NIS 5.2369/€.
At the foreign currency trading desk at Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL), analysts say this morning that the current level of the dollar presents a good opportunity to sell dollars, especially for investors who do not trust the dollar's strength on global markets. This is because foreign investors who are trading on the different interest rates in Israel and the US won't stop until the US and Britain pass banking reforms.
The US Federal Reserve yesterday left the Fed Funds target rate at 0-.25%, where it has been for about a year, and the Fed repeated that it will keep rates low for an extended period of time.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.729/$, 0.107% lower than the day before, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 5.2469/€, 0.228% lower than the day before.
One year ago, the shekel-dollar exchange rate was NIS 4.025/$. The exchange rate ended 2009 at NIS 3.775/$, and dropped to as low as NIS 3.667/$ in mid-January. Since then, the shekel has weakened 1.7% to its current level of around NIS 3.73/$.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 28, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010