Stocks were mixed and hardly moved in either direction on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday, eventually ending the day with a negative bias. The terror attacks against Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia didn't seem to affect investors at all.
Nor were Israeli investors swayed by movement on European markets, which rose yesterday on news that the Greek parliament had approved a second austerity plan. The approval opens the door to a new €130 million bailout from the European Union. While rioting shook the streets of Athens - and elsewhere in Greece - the Greek parliament nonetheless gave the thumbs-up to extreme cuts. The stock market in Athens climbed 4.7% in response.
In Tel Aviv, the blue chip benchmark TA-25 index fell 0.1% to close at 1,119 points and the broader TA-100 index also fell 0.1% to end the day at 1,018 points. The TA-Composite index also lost 0.1%. Not all was red yesterday, as the TA-Banks index rose 0.3% after jumping 2.3% on Sunday. The Real Estate-15 index gained 0.3%. The Biomed index fell 0.2%, the BlueTech-50 index rose 0.2% and the Oil and Gas Exploration index fell 0.2%. Turnover was once again quite low at NIS 1.2 billion.
Government bonds fell by up to 0.2%, while large-cap corporate bonds - as represented by the TelBond-20 index - were down slightly. The TelBond-40 and -60 indexes fell by up to 0.1%.
Clal Industries dropped 2.1% after falling 3.8% on Sunday, on the news that it was selling control of its Mashav subsidiary to the Livnat family.
Shares of HOT Telecom also lost 2.1%.
TowerJazz climbed 6.6%. The company announced it has been awarded a capital expenditure subsidy of around $10 million from the Japanese government. (See story on Page 8. )
The dollar rose 0.1% against the shekel yesterday to a representative rate of NIS 3.717. The euro moved in the opposite direction, but fell only 0.1% against the local currency to a representative rate of NIS 4.923. This was in contrast to the trend in world forex markets, where the euro rose slightly against the dollar on news of the Greek austerity plan.
Asian shares also rose after the Greek news.
