The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) fell today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index fell 0.91% to 1,186.50 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index fell 0.78% to 1,057.89 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index fell 0.21% to 314.40 points. Turnover was NIS 922 million.
The TASE fell today, in line with mixed sessions on European markets and losses early trading on Wall Street. After trading in negative territory all day, the TASE fell sharply at the close on Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer's announcement that he will resign on June 30.
"The market loved and appreciated Fischer's professionalism, which is why it responded so sharply," said Tamir Fishman investment manager Shlomi Agami. "To many people, Fischer was seen as the economy's responsible adult, and the announcement causes great uncertainty. Fischer is not ashamed to speak out and he knew how to protect the banks, whose share reacted badly to the announcement. In my opinion, the fear is fleeting, and will not last long; only until we know will succeed him and what the Bank of Israel's policy will be."
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel announced that it was keeping the interest rate for February unchanged at 1.75%.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.729/$, down 0.08% compared with yesterday's representative rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 5.01/€, down 0.06%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds were unchanged and long term Galil CPI-linked government fell by up to 0.6%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index fell 0.05%.
In the stock market, the volatility at Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) continued and it fell 3.9%, for the biggest loss among Tel Aviv 25 shares. NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) rose 1.3% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares.
Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) fell 0.5% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 75.4 million.
The Banking Index fell 1.4%, with Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) down 1.7% and Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) down 1.6%, although Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) bucked the market with a gain of 1.1%.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) rose another 1.9% on top of yesterday's 10.5% jump. Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT; TASE: GILT) rose 0.9% after announcing a contract with Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON). Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. (Nasdaq:NVMI; TASE:NVMI) rose 0.7%, following a "Buy" recommendation with a target price $11 from Stifel Nicolaus
Scailex Corporation (TASE: SCIX; Pink Sheets:SCIXF) rose 10.6% on closing the sale of Orange franchisee Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), which fell 0.5%.
The Biomed Index bucked the market with a gain of 0.7%. BiolineRX Ltd. (Nasdaq: BLRX); TASE:BLRX) rose another 2% and Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (TASE: CBI) rose 3.8%.
Small-cap mining and exploration company Shefa Yamim Ltd. (TASE: SEFA) rose another 8.1%, to complete a 100% rise in three days.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2013
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