The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.70% to 1,305.67 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.66% to 1,179.27 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 0.29% to 343.55 points. Turnover was NIS 742.3 million.
The TASE rose today, in line with gains on European markets and Wall Street on Friday. The market was given a boost by the appointment of Dr. Karnit Flug as governor of the Bank of Israel
In the foreign currency market, options pointed to a 0.06% drop in the shekel-dollar exchange rate, compared with Friday's representative rate, to NIS 3.531/$, and to a 0.02% rise in the shekel-euro exchange rate to NIS 4.833/€.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds rose by up to 0.5% and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds rose by up to 1%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.29%.
In the stock market, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) fell 0.7% as employees at one of its Israeli plants went on strike. Tamar partners Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) rose 0.5% and 1.7%, respectively, as the High Court of Justice began its hearing on natural gas exports.
Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) rose 2% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 75 million, and sister company Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) rose 2.6% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares.
Opko Health Inc. (NYSE: OPK); TASE: OPK) fell 4% for the biggest loss among Tel Aviv 25 shares.
On the Tel Aviv 100 Index, Babylon Ltd. (TASE:BBYL) fell 6.6%, after reporting complaints from Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) over their collaboration. PhotoMedex Inc. (Nasdaq: PHMD; TASE: PHMD) fell 7%.
Elsewhere in the market, Biocancell Therapeutics Ltd. (TASE:BICL) fell 18.9%, after suspending all clinical development, except for a bladder cancer treatment. Afcon Industries Ltd. (TASE: AFIN) rose 5%, after raising NIS 100 million in debt in an offering that was oversubscribed. Shefa Yamim Ltd. (TASE: SEFA) rose 27.9% after obtaining a diamond exploration license.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 20, 2013
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