The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.55% to 1,211.31 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.73% to 1,084.23 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 1.45% to 324.08 points. Turnover was NIS 1.27 billion.
The TASE rose again today, in line with gains on European markets and at the opening on Wall Street, after the House of Representative passed the legislation to prevent the US going over the fiscal cliff.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.726/$, down 0.56% on yesterday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.943/€, down 0.20%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds fell by up to 0.1% and long term Galil CPI-linked government fell by up to 0.2%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.07%.
In the stock market, oil and gas exploration companies were the center of attention. Tamar partners Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) both rose 3.7%, for the biggest gains among Tel Aviv 25 shares, and their parent company, Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG), rose 1.2%. Their partner Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) rose 2.6%.
Banks also rose today, led by a 1.3% gain by Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) and a 0.9% gain by Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT). Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 0.3%, but Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) fell 0.1% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 71.3 million.
Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) fell 2.2%, after "Globes" reported that its electric car venture, Better Place Inc., delivered only five cars in December.
The Real Estate 15 Index rose 2.5%, with all shares gaining ground, led by a 7.5% gain by Alrov (Israel) Ltd. (TASE: ALRO). Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL) rose 4.2%, after its bondholders accepted a buy-swap offer to exchange NIS 1.5 billion of Series 26 bonds with a new series with a lower interest rate.
Biocancell Therapeutics Ltd. (TASE:BICL) fell 13% in profit taking after its 187% jump in the two previous days, but D-Pharm Ltd. (TASE: DPRM) rose another 16.4%. Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (TASE: CBI), which is seeking to merge with the two subsidiaries, fell 4%.
Proteologics Ltd. (TASE: PRTL) rose 8.6% and InsuLine Medical Ltd. (TASE: INSL) rose 10%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 2, 2013
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