The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and euro as global stock markets rally strongly. In early afternoon inter-bank, the shekel exchange rate is down 0.46% against the dollar at NIS 3.113/$ and down 0.27% against the euro at NIS 3.536/€.
On the foreign exchange market, the Bank of Israel yesterday set the representative shekel-dollar rate up 0.225% from Monday, at NIS 3.116/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 0.242% higher at NIS 3.526/€.
Prior to today the shekel had been depreciating for several days, as international stock markets fell and Israeli institutional investors were forced to sell shekels and buy foreign currency to hedge their positions. But markets are again on the rise including the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) with the Tel Aviv 35 Index climbing 1.13% to a new record of 2045.11 points, in early afternoon trading.
Prico Risk Management and Investments CEO Yossi Fraiman said, "The positive trend in the stock market supports an appreciation of the shekel, while concern about the effect of a US rate hike had caused a halt in the appreciation of the shekel and a stabilization of the exchange rate around NIS 3.11/$. In our assessment, while in the long term the dominant trend is in favor of the shekel, in the medium term, due to the expected rise in dollar interest rates, we estimate that the dollar is expected to move in a wide range of rates. with potential for a limited devaluation in the current stage, in moving beyond the most extreme point against the shekel last year (NIS 3.074/$)."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2022.
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