The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.83% to 1,295.80 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.64% to 1,167.87 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 0.44% to 335.13 points. Turnover was NIS 1.18 billion.
The TASE rose today, despite a mixed session on European markets and losses at the opening on Wall Street.
In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.537/$, down 0.28% on Friday's rate, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 4.797/€, down 0.30%.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds fell. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.06%.
In the stock market, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) rose 1.4% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 136.1 million, amid the furor over its massive layoffs.
Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) fell 1% on reports that it will fire 16% of its workforce amid financial problems. Parent companies Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) rose 1.4% and Israel Petrochemical Enterprises Ltd. (TASE:PTCH) fell 2.7%.
Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) rose 2.7% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, followed by 1.7% gains by both Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) and Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL). Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL) fell 1.7%, for the biggest loss on the index.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc. (AMEX:PLX; TASE: PLX) rose 3.7%, after announcing positive results in a trial on its oral treatment for Gaucher disease.
Oil and gas exploration stocks took a beating today, driving the Oil and Gas Index down 5.6%, after Shemen Oil and Gas Resources Ltd. (TASE: SOG) announced after the market closed yesterday that its much-touted Yam 3 well was a dry hole. Shemen Oil fell 87.3%, Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L) fell 40%, Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP (TASE: ISOP.L) fell 8.6%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 14, 2013
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