The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) was flat today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index edged up 0.07% to 1015.36 points, and the Tel Aviv 100 Index edged up 0.09% to 929.10 points, and the Tel-Tech rose 3.47% to 233.97 points. Turnover was NIS 1.58 billion.
With a day's delay, because the market was closed for Tisha B'Av yesterday, TASE investors responded to Friday's sharp gains on Wall Street, which was responding to falling oil prices. The drop has released money that flowed into stock markets around the world, giving leading indices a positive return for the week.
However, the TASE was unable to sustain its rally, and the leading indices fell back to their opening levels in afternoon trading, despite slight gains during the day in Europe, at signs that Wall Street would open with losses.
Meanwhile, Leader Capital Markets said, "Looking forward, given the scenario of an extended slowdown (in Israel and globally) and the welcome falls in commodities prices, fears of stagflation have dissipated, and the Bank of Israel is not expected to raise the interest rate."
In the foreign exchange market, the shekel-dollar exchange rate fell 0.61% to NIS 3.566/$ and the shekel-euro exchange rate fell 1.6% to NIS 5.356/€. In the bond market, prices for long-term shekel instruments fell by 0.4%, but prices for CPI-linked instruments rose by 0.3%.
In the stock market, Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) led the way down with a fall of 5%, and its parent, Israel Corp. (TASE: ILCO) fell 4.9%. Israel Chemicals' share price moves in tandem with the prices of its international peers, which are often linked to the price of oil.
The Tel-Tech was given a boost by a 13.1% gain by Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ALDN; TASE: ALDN) on yesterday's news that private equity fund manager Vector Capital Corp. said on Friday that it had become a party at interest with a 9.1% stake.
NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) rose 5.4% after Leader Capital Markets reiterated its "Outperform" recommendation for the company but cut its target price to $37 from $40.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) fell 5%, despite announcing that Jazz Technologies Inc. (AMEX: JAZ) will convene a shareholders' meeting on September 17 to vote on Tower's offer to acquire the company.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 11, 2008
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