A mood of optimism following yesterday’s meeting between US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and Bush’s backing for the prime minister’s plan for disengagement from the Palestinians, lifted prices on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning. The Tel Aviv 25 index is up 0.61%, at 534.76 points, and the Tel-Tech index is up 0.37%, at 433.99 points.
This is despite the fact that many dual-listed shares opened on substantial negative arbitrage gaps after yesterday’s declines on Wall Street. The Dow Jones declined by 0.03% to 10,377.95 points and the Nasdaq slid 0.26% to 2,024.85 points.
The Central Bureau of Statistics will release the Consumer Price Index for March today. It is expected to show a of up to 0.3% - the ninth negative index in the past twelve months.
Shares in the news
MA Industries (TASE:MAIN) is is up 1.3%, following yesterday's announcement of an agreement to acquire a group of American companies dealing mainly in registration, import and marketing of generic crop protection products, for $44 million, including $7.5 million in MA Industries' shares.
Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR; TASE:ALVR) opened with a negative arbitrage gap of 5.98%, despite yesterday's announcement of a new $18 million contract to supply its eMGW broadband solution to a Latin American country to expand its wireless communications network. It is currently down 4% in Tel Aviv.
NICE-Systems (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE:NICE) is flat after opening on a 0.8% negative arbitrage gap; Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE:PTNR; LSE:PCCD), which opened on a 1.6% negative arbitrage gap is up 2%; Tower Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE:TSEM) is down 0.9%; and Given Imaging (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE:GIVN) is down 1.9%.
On the other hand, Teva Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE:TEVA) started with a positive arbitrage gap of 0.4%, and is up 1%.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 15, 2004