The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.51% to 1,224.72 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.38% to 1,091.04 points, but the TechBlue 50 Index fell 0.13% to 313.33 points. Turnover was NIS 1.09 billion.
The leading TASE indices rose today, in line with gains on European markets and at the opening on Wall Street.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.683/$, up 0.14% on yesterday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.914/€, up 0.01%.
In the bond market, both long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds rose by up to 0.1%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.57%.
In the stock market, the banks took center stage, after the Bank of Israel announced new mortgage restrictions. Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) rose 2.4% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 1.7%, and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) rose 0.8%. But Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) fell 1.2%, the biggest bank in the mortgage sector and therefore the most vulnerable to the new directive, for the biggest loss among Tel Aviv 25 shares.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) rose 1.1% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 69 million, while Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) fell 0.7% on the day's second biggest turnover of NIS 42.6 million.
Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) corrected upwards 1.9%, while mobile carriers Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) and Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) rose 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) fell another 3.3% today, after publishing its financials.
Small-cap Bio-Light Israeli Life Sciences Investments Ltd. (TASE:BOLT) rose 24.5% and Elbit Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT) rose another 20%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 19, 2013
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