Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) players reacted with complete shock to Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation. Leading TASE indices plummeted on the news. Trading was slow until 3:50 pm today, when news of the resignation broke, resulting in utter hysteria. The indices, which had fallen slightly on thin trading, suddenly went into a tailspin.
A preliminary review of the stock market shows that the financial sector and other companies exposed to the domestic market were the main victims of Netanyahu’s resignation.
There is no foreign currency trading today, but dollar options indicate a 1.8% depreciation of the shekel against the dollar to NIS 4.555, following news of the resignation.
In the bond market, shekel and index-linked instruments fell by over 1.4%.
The panic resulting from Netanyahu’s resignation boosted turnover to NIS 1.7 billion.
By closing the Tel Aviv 25 index was down 5.2%, the Tel Aviv 100 index was down 4.5%, the Tel-Tech was down 3.5%, the Finance 15 index was down 5.6%, and the Yeter 30 index was down 3.3%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 7, 2005