The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.13% to 1,219.33 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.01% to 1,079.24 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 0.46% to 319.44 points. Turnover was NIS 887.6 million.
The TASE rose slightly, despite falls on European markets and at the opening on Wall Street.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.733/$, down 0.241% on Friday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.989/€, up 0.463%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds were unchanged and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds ranged rose by up to 0.4%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index fell 0.02%.
In the stock market, NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) rose strongly on reports that it is in merger talks with Verint Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: VRNT) for the biggest gain on the Tel Aviv 25 Index on the day's largest trading turnover.
Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) staged a slight recovery rising 1.42%.
Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L), was unchanged despite a report by Citi which gave the share 26% upside even though it has risen 32% in the past year.
In the energy exploration sector it was also a good day for Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L), which rose 23.3% after the planning committee gave the green light to the Gabriella drilling despite protests from environmentalists.
Insurance companies continued to drag the market down and the Insurance Index lost 1.7%. Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL) fell 2.4% and Menorah Mivtachim Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MORA) fell 2.1%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 14, 2013
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