Last update - 00:00 17/03/2008
Tel Aviv stock exchange loses 9% of its value in 3 trading days
By Natan Sheva and Dafna Maor
Heavy losses in share prices continued on Monday on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which has lost 9 percent of its total value in three days of trading.
In the same period, the bank shares index fell by 6.3 percent, the real estate index by 6 percent, the Tel Aviv 100 and Maof indices by 4 percent, and the Tel-Tech by 1.5 percent. An ongoing labor dispute involving stock exchange employees curtailed the trading day, which ended at 2:15 P.M.
The dollar also declined sharply versus the shekel, falling 1.25 percent to trade at NIS 3.42 shekels to the dollar. The dollar strengthened somewhat at the end of last week, following intervention by the Bank of Israel, which purchased dollars in order to stave off further economic injury to exporters.
The Monday weakening of the dollar sparked speculation that the central bank would again intervene.
On Thursday and Friday, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer ordered the bank to purchase about $600 million, in an attempt to stop the rise of the shekel against the American currency. The dollar rose 2.1% on Friday against the shekel, but last week was still down against the shekel 3.5% for the week.