The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) indices rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 index rose 1.54% to 648.82 points, the Tel Aviv 100 rose 1.61% to 676 points, and the Tel-Tech rose 0.74% to 437.39 points. Turnover was NIS 1.25 billion.
The recent peals of Middle East peace are continuing to lift the TASE to new heights. The results are seen in the indices. For the first time ever, the Tel Aviv 100 index rose above 670 points. The Tel Aviv 25 index is nearing its next resistance level - 650 points - and even briefly breached it during today's session.
The Tel Aviv 25 index rose 5.4% for the week, the Tel Aviv 100 index rose 5.3%, the Tel Aviv 75 index rose 6.7%, and the Tel-Tech, which is more affected by Nasdaq than Nablus, rose 3.6%.
Shlomo Eliahu sells
In addition to heavy demand by Israeli funds and market players, foreign investors also continued to pour demands into the market. This is mainly seen in the shares for the big banks and the other foreign investors' favorites: Bezeq (TASE: BZEQ), Israel Chemicals (TASE: CLIM), and Super Sol (NYSE: SSLTF.PK; TASE: SAE). Bank Hapoalim (LSE: BKHD; TASE: POLI) rose 1.7% on the session's largest turnover of NIS 100 million.
Today's big story belonged to Israel's number two bank - Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI). Shlomo Eliahu sold part of his 11.4% stake in the bank last night. He has made an impressive NIS 98 million capital gain in less than two months, reflecting a return of 57.6%. He sold 20 million Bank Leumi shares, bought last December by selling series 7 options he held, to UBS (NYSE; SWX:UBS) for NIS 268 million (NIS 13.40 a share).
Bank Leumi did not deviate from the market trend, rising 1.7% on a turnover of NIS 86 million.
Other banks also rose strongly: United Mizrahi Bank (TASE: MZRH) rose 4.4%; and First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN1;FTIN5) rose 5.1% (FTIN1) and 3.9% (FTIN5). Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) was apathetic, ending the day unchanged.
A financial report by Great Lakes Chemicals Corp. (NYSE:GLK) gave further impetus to Israel Chemicals, since its potash and bromide units account for 75% of the company's revenue and a greater proportion of its profits. Israel Chemicals rose 3.8% (a sharp rise for a blue-chip share) to a new peak in response to the positive developments.
Frutarom Industries (TASE: FRUT) completed its issue on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) yesterday. The share price was set at $7.63 (NIS 33.50) at the close of the tender, 1.5% below the company's opening price on the TASE today.
Frutarom rose to $8 on the LSEE today in moderate trading, reaching almost 5% above the issue price, on a turnover of over $1.5 million. The share was not indifferent on the TASE either, rising over 5% during the session, to close with a rise of 1.5&, on the share's largest ever turnover of NIS 50 million.
On the first day of trading in Dor Chemicals (TASE: DORC) since its management upheaval, it seems that the market liked the fact that executives' heads rolled. The share soared 22.7%, on a turnover of almost NIS 2 million - very large for this share. Is this the start of a new chapter in the company's history? Maybe.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on February 3, 2005