The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 1.27% to 1,241.17 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 1.50% to 1,118.01 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 1.38% to 313.90 points. Turnover was NIS 1.3 billion.
The TASE rose across the board today, the day after the Bank of Israel cut the interest rate for the second time in two weeks, and in line with gains 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 3.707/$, up 0.30% compared with yesterday's representative rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.796/€, down 0.04%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds ranged between losses of 0.2% and gains of 0.2%. and long term Galil CPI-linked government rose by up to 0.4%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.22%.
In the stock market, Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS) rose 4.6%, for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) rose 2.3%, after they both reported strong profit growth for the first quarter.
The other banks also rose strongly today, with Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) up 2%, Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) up 2.4% on teh day's biggest turnover of NIS 65.7 million, and Israel Discount Bank (TASE: DSCT) up 3.3%. The Banking Index rose 2.4%.
Gazit-Globe Ltd. (NYSE: GZT; TASE: GZT) rose 2.8%, after publishing strong financials, and its parent company Norstar Holdings Inc. (TASE: NSTR), listed on the Tel Aviv 100 Index, rose 4.9%. Psagot Investment House Ltd. upgraded its recommendation for Gazit-Globe from "Hold" to "Buy", predicting that its momentum will continue.
Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) rose 1.4%. UBS today predicted that it would continue to be the dual-listed share with the biggest turnover on the TASE. It's high-tech peers on the index, EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: EZCH; TASE:EZCH) and NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE), rose 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) and subsidiary Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) both fell 1.7%, for the biggest losses among Tel Aviv 25 shares, but its other subsidiary on the index, Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) rose 0.8%.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, the Insurance Index rose 5.%, led by a 6.5% gain by Menorah Mivtachim Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MORA) and 6% gain by Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. (TASE: HARL). The Phoenix Holdings Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) rose 4.4%, after reporting the doubling of its net profit to NSI 252 million for the first quarter.
Elsewhere in the market, Shefa Yamim Ltd. (TASE: SEFA) rose 11.8% on preparations to raise NIS 3 million in a private placement.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 28, 2013
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