Traders expect no let up in the terrible weight of violence on the market today, after this morning’s suicide bombing on a bus near Haifa that left eight Israelis dead and many wounded.
Also, investors fear that a new front may open up on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, after Hizbullah fired a barrage of missiles last night at Israeli positions. The declines seen on Wall Street yesterday won’t help lift the mood.
In foreign currency trade, the shekel decline is continuing this morning. Currently, the Israeli currency is trading at NIS 4.7847/$, reflecting a 0.2% depreciation from Tuesday’s representative rate.
Yesterday, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange leading indices fell amid reports of heavy fighting in Jenin. The Tel Aviv 100 index fell 0.64% to 372.08 points; the Tel Aviv 25 index fell 0.79% to 384.59 points, and the Teltech index fell 1.24% to 218.29 points. Turnover was NIS 277.5 million.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, shares declined on the back of profitability concerns, as more companies joined IBM in lowering financial forecasts. The Dow Jones lost 0.39% to 10,208.67 points, while the Nasdaq dropped 2.42% to 1,742.57 points. Among Israeli shares on Wall Street, Check Point (Nasdaq: CHKP) lost 5.4% and Gilat Satellite Networks (Nasdaq: GILTF) tumbled 14.2%.
Telecom company Bezeq may attract interest from investors. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Gad Zeevi has asked through his attorney Dr. Yaakov Neeman for an urgent meeting with representatives of the bank consortium that granted him credit to buy 19.17% of Bezeq. At the end of last week, the banks notified Zeevi that they intended to foreclose his Bezeq stake, which was collateral for the loan.
Separately, Hebrew daily “Yediot Ahronot” reports that Hong Kong-based PCCW had withdrawn from the government tender for Bezeq.
Dual-listed shares’ arbitrage gaps are mixed. Mobile phone operator Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR) starts the session with a 0.8% positive arbitrage gap. NICE-Systems (Nasdaq: NICE) may decline towards its US share price, which is 0.9% lower than its Tel Aviv closing price yesterday.
Arbitrage gaps Wednesday 10 April 2002
| Stock | % Change* |
| Audiocodes | 2.8 |
| Blue Square Israel | 1.1 |
| Delta Galil | -0.3 |
| Elbit | -0.6 |
| Elbit Systems | 0.7 |
| Elron | 0.5 |
| Formula | -1.3 |
| Koor | -0.3 |
| Magic | 0.3 |
| Matav | -0.3 |
| Nice | -0.9 |
| Partner | 0.8 |
| Teva | -0.1 |
| Tower | 1.8 |
*%change required in Tel Aviv to meet New York closing price
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 10 April, 2002