The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) fell today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index fell 0.88% to 1,219.62 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index fell 0.92% to 1,074.25 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index fell 2.11% to 318.11 points. Turnover was NIS 1.5 billion.
The TASE fell today, in line with a mixed session on European markets and losses at the opening on Wall Street. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 2.2% for the week.
The TASE reported today that the Financial Index rose by 3.5% in December, compared with a 3.6% drop by the Tel Aviv 25 Index. The BlueTech 50 Index and the Telecommunications Index fell by 7-8% in December. The average daily turnover in 2012 was NIS 1.07 billion, 38% less than the average of NIS 1.72 million in 2011.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.735/$, up 0.57% on yesterday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.897€, down 0.62%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds rose by up to 0.1% and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds ranged between losses of 0.2% and gains of 0.2%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index was unchanged.
In the stock market, Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) fell 17.3% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 162 million, after publishing a revenue warning for the fourth quarter of 2012 yesterday. UBS today cut its target price for the company from $70 to $56.
Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) fell 0.7%. Psagot Investment House Ltd. said today, "Weakness in the fertilizer market is reflected in Canoptex's contract with China." It reiterated its "Hold" recommendation for Israel Chemicals and price target of NIS 50.
Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) rose 1.3%, after announcing that its hydrocracker for the production of clean fuels was operational.
Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) fell 1.5%, after selling 4.6% of Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL) for NIS 275 million, and annoumcing that it will sell an additional 2% for NIS 48 million in a few days. Migdal fell 2.6%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2013
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