Wed: Tel Aviv 25 closes one point below record

On a short trading day, Israel Chemicals and parent company Israel Corp. led the rises but Teva fell 1.9%.

The Tel Aviv 25 Index is now just one point below its all-time high. The market closed at 2:45 pm, and will close at the same time tomorrow, for the Passover holiday.

In the bond market, both long-term Shahar unlinked government bonds and long-term Galil CPI-linked bonds rose by up to 0.3%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.02%.

In the foreign currency market, the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate rose 0.23% to 3.424/$, and the shekel-euro representative exchange rate fell 0.12% to NIS 4.942/€.

In the stock market, Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) rose 3.8% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, and help pull up its parent company, Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) by 2.7%.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) fell 1.9%, for the biggest drop among Tel Aviv 25 shares, on the day's largest turnover of NIS 131 million.

The big five banks were the focus of attention, after Moody's Investment Services downgraded their deposits. Nonetheless, Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 0.8% and First International Bank of Israel (TASE: FTIN), which is on the Tel Aviv 100 Index, rose 0.3%. Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) fell 0.1%, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) fell 1.3%, and Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) fell 1%.

IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) holding company Discount Investment Corporation (TASE: DISI) rose 0.4% after announcing a debt settlement with Bank Hapoalim and Vladimir Gusinski, ahead of its pending acquisition of control of Ma'ariv Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MARV-M).

Silicom Ltd. (Nasdaq:SILC; TASE:SILC) rose 7.8% ahead of tomorrow's publication of its financial report for the first quarter.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 20, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011