The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.21% to 1,371.18 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.28% to 1,224.64 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 1.93% to 334.34 points. Turnover was NIS 709.7 million.
The TASE rally continued today, in line with gains on European markets and on Wall Street on Friday. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.8% last week, and is up 4.5% since the beginning of the year.
In the foreign currency market, options point to a 0.52% drop in the shekel-dollar exchange rate, compared with Friday's representative rate, to NIS 3.498/$, and to a 0.10% drop in the shekel-euro exchange rate NIS 4.798/€.
In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked shekel government bonds and long term Galil CPI-linked government bonds were mixed. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.07%.
In the stock market, Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) and Opko Health Inc. (NYSE: OPK; TASE: OPK) both rose 5.3% for the biggest gains among Tel Aviv 25 shares. Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 1% and Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) rose 1.3%.
Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) fell 3.9% and its gas exploration units Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) fell 3.3% and 2.6%, respectively, for the biggest losses among Tel Aviv 25 shares.
On the Tel Aviv 100 market, Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN) rose 21.3% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 34, million, on the sale of the controlling interest in the company to Ireland's Covidien plc (NYSE: COV). The sellers, IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) unit Discount Investment Corporation (TASE: DISI) and its subsidiary Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (TASE: ELRN), rose 3.6% and 15%, respectively. IDB rose 12.2% as investors wait for the results of bondholders' vote on who will acquire the company.
Elsewhere in the market, Itamar Medical Ltd. (TASE:ITMR) rose 1.6%, after Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL) bought 11% of the company for NIS 15 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 8, 2013
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