Yossi Beinart proposes that the stock market should come into line with the global norm.
About a year after the trading day on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) was extended, TASE CEO Yossi Beinart is examining the possibility of cancelling trading on Sundays and having trading sessions of Fridays instead (the TASE is currently closed on Fridays). This is in accordance with the recommendations of the committee on liquidity on the stock exchange that was set up last year, and which proposed, among other things, that trading days on the TASE should be changed to fall into line with the norm overseas (Monday-Friday). The TASE is one of the few stock markets in the world that are open on Sundays.
The committee was set up by Israel Securities Authority chairman Prof. Shmuel Hauser, in an effort to stem the continuing decline in turnover on the market, which has dropped by 50% since 2008. Yesterday, total turnover on the TASE was NIS 308 million, one of the lowest levels recorded on the local stock market in the past decade.
Beinart, who took up the post of TASE CEO in January this year, decided to examine whether the benefit of swapping Fridays for Sundays justified the cost of the change. The TASE sent questionnaires to all its members and to local and foreign investors to explore the cost-benefit question.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 28, 2014
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TASE picture: Tamar Mitzpi