The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange advanced slightly today, after Nasdaq ended the first day of the US trading week with a 1.1% gain.
At 12:30 p.m. Israel time, the Tel Aviv 25 index was up 0.44% at 298.92 points, the Tel Aviv 100 index was up 0.4% at 307.67 points, but the Tel-Tech 15 index was down 1.5% at 162.72 points. At NIS 40 million after three hours of trade, turnovers on the local market remain thin.
The TASE posted a low NIS 113 million daily turnover on Monday, after just NIS 94 million worth of shares changed hands on Sunday. With tension over a possible war in Iraq still high, it is difficult to see a rise in activity, a market source said this morning.
Heavily weighted share Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA) is up 2% on the back of a 1.5% positive arbitrage gap. Bank Hapoalim said in a research note that it expected the drug maker’s fourth quarter profit rose 37% to $122 million. Teva will announce its financial results next Tuesday.
Chip maker Tower Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TSEM) is down 15% after starting today’s session with a 7% negative arbitrage gap with its Nasdaq listed share. Israel Corporation, which owns 27% of Tower, is off 3.7%.
Concern over progress in Tower Semiconductor’s business accounts for the decline in the share. “Globes” reported yesterday that Tower was not commenting on its situation, and that this was making its investors fell very insecure.
Bezeq shares are up 0.6%. Hebrew daily “Yediot Ahronot” reports that in 2002, the state-owned telecom operator recorded the third consecutive year of declining talk time on its fixed lines. According to the report, Bezeq is expected to record 16.4 billion minutes of phone usage for 2002, compared with 17.1 billion in 2001 and 18.3 billion in 2000.
Bank shares are also rising, with Bank Leumi up 0.3% and Bank Hapoalim up 1.2%. According to “Yediot Ahronot”, Israeli banks are expected to post higher allowances for doubtful debts for the final quarter of 2002, compared with the preceding quarter. In the third quarter, Bank Leumi posted doubtful debt allowances of NIS 627 million, while Bank Hapoalim’s allowance reached NIS 555 million.
The banks will release their fourth quarter results at the end of March.
Meanwhile, Super-Sol is rising 1.7% on a relatively high NIS 5 million turnover. Super-Sol’s climb is helping lift shares of its parent, Discount Investment Corporation, which is up 0.6%.
Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR) is down 1.9% at NIS 12.91, after Nessuah Zannex lowered the price target from to NIS 19.5 from NIS 25. The “Buy” rating was maintained, as the share still has to climb 50% from current levels to reach the new price target.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 11 February, 2003