Traders report this morning that the market feels positive amid further press coverage of renewed contacts between Israelis and Palestinians. Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israel’s Channel 1 news that he would meet with senior Palestinian officials again in ten days time.
Optimism surrounding even the slightest hope of renewed and meaningful dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians was enough to lift the market substantially on Sunday. The Tel Aviv 25 index closed up 2.01% at 4462.45 points, the Tel Aviv 100 index rose 1.94% to 444.93 points, and the Tel-Tech index gained 2.43% to 271.00 points. Turnover totaled a moderate NIS 269 million.
Foreign currency trade has resumed this morning after the weekend break with the shekel strengthening against the dollar to NIS 4.575/$. The advance represents a 0.28% appreciation for the Israeli currency from the representative rate set on Friday.
Bank Leumi and Bezeq are likely to be active today. “Globes” reports that Bank Leumi is considering joining as a financial investor in Bezeq as part of the privatization of the company. Based on Bezeq’s current market value, Bank Leumi can acquire up to 5% of Bezeq.
Yesterday, Israel Corporation chairman Idan Ofer confirmed that his company intended to bid for control of Bezeq. Bank Leumi owns 20% of Israel Corp., and may be a financial partner in Bezeq alongside Israel Corp.
In another Bezeq related story, “Globes” reports that Zeevi Holdings has officially submitted a request for NIS 25 million in additional credit from The First International Bank of Israel (FIBI), as a bridging loan for several months.
The proposal for the bridge loan was submitted as part of settling the Zeevi group’s NIS 8.3 million debt to Union Bank. Under the arrangement, FIBI will buy the debt for NIS 6.75 million, and Union Bank will withdraw its petition to dismantle the group.
Zeevi Holdings is controlled by the Israeli businessman Gad Zeevi, who owns about 19% of Bezeq.
Formula Systems (Nasdaq: FORTY), which rose 6.5% yesterday, could attract interest today. This morning, Computer Direct Group (Mihshuv Yashir) announced that it was negotiating the sale of half of its shares in Formula to Iscal Holdings at a price above market.
Arbitrage gaps Monday 4 February 2002
| Stock | % Change* |
| Audiocodes | -2.6 |
| Blue Square Israel | -3.6 |
| Delta Galil | -0.4 |
| Elbit | -2.1 |
| Elbit Systems | -1.4 |
| Elron | -2.7 |
| Formula | -5.5 |
| Koor | -0.9 |
| Magic | -1.5 |
| Matav | -6.0 |
| Nice | -3.1 |
| Partner | -4.9 |
| Teva | -1.2 |
| Tower | -3.5 |
*%change required in Tel Aviv to meet New York price
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 4 February, 2002