Gas find boosts shekel

The shekel-dollar rate has fallen below 3.8/$, with the ceasefire in Gaza also bolstering confidence in the local currency.

Yesterday's news of a commercial gas field off the coast at Haifa sent the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange sharply higher. Trading volume in the companies involved in the drilling was exceptionally heavy, much of it accounted for by overseas investors, who presumably converted money into shekels in order to buy shares, strengthening the local currency.

A further boost to the shekel comes from the ceasefire in Gaza announced by Hamas yesterday, following Israel's unilateral ceasefire announced on Saturday night.

On the other hand, the Consumer Price Index published on Thursday showed a 0.1% fall, admittedly a smaller fall than had been expected, but still enough to maintain expectations that the Bank of Israel will cut its interest rate further and bring it down to 1% over the coming months.

The shekel-dollar rate is currently down 1.63% on Friday's representative rate of 3.885.$, at 3.798. The shekel-euro rate is down 0.39% on Friday's representative rate of 5.0837€, at 5.0774/€.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 19, 2009

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009

Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018