The week's foreign currency trading opened today with the shekel appreciating sharply. This came in response to David Klein's expected appointment as Governor of the Bank of Israel and the advances posted on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and on the US stock exchanges.
The dollar representative rate of exchange fell 0.58% to NIS 4.115, the lowest for the past six months. The dollar exchange rate has fallen by 1% by NIS 0.037 since Klein's appointment was announced on Friday. The currency basket exchange rate fell even more sharply, by 0.83%, to NIS 4.3869, slipping by 1.3% within two days.
The basket exchange rate now stands only 8.2% above the fluctuation band floor, and can move another 27.4% to the upper limit.
Total volume of foreign currency transactions (buy and sell) today amounted to over $500 million. The foreign currency market opened with the dollar free-falling to NIS 4.115. At that stage, demand was injected, slightly raising the exchange rate to NIS 4.12.
The euro today fell 1.47% to NIS 4.2045. The German mark was down 1.5%. The pound sterling fell 1.32% to NIS 6.7317, completing an overall slide of more than 2% within two days. The Japanese yen was down 0.38% to NIS 3.9275, completing a slide of 1.2% within two days.
Published by Israel's Business Arena January 10, 2000