The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.61% to 1,230.16 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.73% to 1,105.37 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 0.62% to 312.84 points. Turnover was NIS 1.17 billion.
The TASE rose today, despite mixed sessions on European markets and losses at the opening on Wall Street.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.66/$, up 0.44% on Friday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.708/€, up 0.46%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds ranged between losses of 0.2% and gains of 0.2%, and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds rose by up to 0.6%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.39%.
In the stock market, Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) rose 4.7%%, for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, after publishing its financials. Sister company Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) rose 1.4%, and their parent company, Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO), rose 2.7%. Oil Refineries' other major shareholder, Israel Petrochemical Enterprises Ltd. (TASE:PTCH), rose 8.4%.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) rose another 0.6% on a positive arbitrage gap.
DS Brokerage today upgraded its recommendation for the banking sector from "Market perform" to "Outperform", although it predicts that the banks will report slightly weaker results in 2013 than in 2012. Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 1.3% and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) rose 0.7%. Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) rose 0.7% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 76 million.
Mobile carrier Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) rose 0.2% ahead of the publication of its financials. Psagot Investment House Ltd. predicts that it will report poorer results in the coming quarters, and that it therefore finds it difficult to see positive developments in the share. Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) rose 1.8%, but Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) fell 1%.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, Alrov (Israel) Ltd. (TASE: ALRO) rose 5.5% and subsidiary Alrov Properties and Lodgings Ltd. (TASE: ALRPR) rose 7.6%.
Mid-Cap Ludan Engineering Co. Ltd. (TASE: LUDN) rose 2.5% after winning a tender to build a diesel mixing plant in Eastern Europe.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 20, 2013
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