Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., July 02, 2009 Tamuz 10, 5769 | | Israel Time: 02:42 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Focus U.S.A. Travel Week's End Anglo File
Share |
TASE is having an incredible year, so far
By Nathan Sheva and Tal Levy

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ended one of its best half-year periods ever yesterday, even though the market fell for the day. The major influence on investors yesterday was the need to rebalance their holdings as the semiannual changes in all the indexes take effect today.

The TA-25 lost 0.7% yesterday to end the day at 862 points, and the TA-100 was down 1.1% to close at 801 points. The TelTech-15 lost 2.3% for the day. Turnover was NIS 2.1 billion. In the second quarter of the year, which ended yesterday, the TA-25 jumped 18% and the TA-100 climbed 20%, even though June was a relatively quiet month.
Advertisement

The even better news is how the TASE performed in the first half of 2009. The best-performing sectors turned out to be those hit hardest last year: real estate and mid- and small-cap shares. The Mid-Cap-50 was the star, gaining 121% in the first six months of the year, followed by the Mid-Cap-120 with a 113% rise. The Real Estate-15 was up 91% since January and the TA-75 gained 88%. This is after all of these indexes fell by about two-thirds last year.

The blue chips showed more modest, but still quite impressive, gains as the TA-25 rose 32% in the first half and the broader TA-100 rose even more, 43%. Bank shares started the year poorly, but still managed to match the gains of the premier index and also rose 32% for the first six months of 2009.

The reason that the TA-75 outperformed the other major indexes was simply the natural gas discoveries in the Mediterranean off the Israeli coast.

Five of the 11 best performers in the TA-100 so far this year were these gas and oil stocks. Isramco was the winner, with a 1,223% gain, which in money terms means that for every NIS 10,000 invested in the share on January 1, 2009, the investor now has NIS 132,300 - at least on paper.

Other big gainers were the Delek Group, up 328% this year, followed by Jerusalem Economic Corporation, up 276%, and Delek Drilling, which rose 265%.

The closing round of trading at the end of the day took much longer than its usual five minutes yesterday. It stretched to a full half hour as many investors, such as index funds, rebalanced their portfolios at the end of the trading day in preparation for the new composition of the indexes starting today. Such sessions can often be quite volatile for shares entering and exiting the major indexes. Super-Sol, up 1.5% for the day yesterday, and Gazit Globe, up 4.2%, both left the TA-25 and will be replaced today by the Delek Group, down 2.4%, and Koor, up 0.1%. The TA-100 is gaining 14 new members while losing only 11. The reason more companies are joining than leaving is that three were delisted during the first half-year.

The TA-100's new 14 are: Delek Real Estate, Alrov Israel (also real estate), Blue Square Real Estate, Kamada (life sciences), Naphtha (oil exploration), Ampal American (holding company), Rami Levy (supermarket chain), Avgol (nonwoven textiles), Kardan Israel (real estate), Africa Israel Residences, Suny (electronics importer), Brainsway (life sciences), Neto (food) and Scope (metals). Leaving the TA-100 index are IDB Holding Corp, FIBI1, Industrial Buildings, Scailex (holdings), Dan Hotels, Property & Building, Greenstone (real estate), REIT-1, AudioCodes (technology), Orckit (technology) and BluePhoenix (software).

Exchange traded funds are the most effected by the changes, as they have to adjust their share inventory, and turnover in the final round was a relatively high NIS 1 billion as a result. Dan Hotels fell 9.1% as it left the TA-100. The share was the worst-performing in the TA-100 index, losing 19% so far this year. Perrigo was next in line, down 10% in the past six months.

Israel Chemicals lost 1.3% yesterday but it is still up 51% so far in 2009 - the share is still 50% below its level of July 2008, however. Swiss investment bank UBS cut its recommendation on Israel Chemicals parent, The Israel Corporation, to Neutral with a target price of NIS 2,400 per share, 11% above its market price yesterday. UBS analysts said they saw a limited upside for the share, which fell 1.6%.

The Banks-5 index, which will remain unchanged in makeup, fell 1.8% yesterday after climbing 8% in the previous two sessions. Bank Leumi took the worst beating in June as it fell 10% for the month, including 2% yesterday. Bank Hapoalim was down 0.8%.

Teva was unchanged and is only 6% below its high at the beginning of 2006. Compugen jumped 20% yesterday.

The Real Estate-15 lost 2.7%. The two companies joining the index as of today are Kardan NV and Delek Real Estate. The index is losing Airport City and Adgar. Kardan rose 3.1%. British Israel rose 3.2%.

Bezeq gained 0.8% on a large turnover of NIS 120 million.

The corporate bond market was a major focus of investment in the first half of the year as the market recovered strongly. As a result of the steep losses in corporate bonds in 2008, investors flocked to the safety of government bonds last year - but returned in force in 2009.

While long-term Shahar government bonds fell in by 1.9% so far this year, short-term bonds rose 2% and inflation-linked long-term Galil government bonds have gone up 9.7% in the past six months.

But it is the corporate bond market reflected in the various TelBond indexes that really set the pace: The TelBond-20 rose 13.7%, the TelBond-40 jumped 33.4% and the TelBond-60 was up 21.6% for the first half of 2009.

While stocks may have roared back, the dollar pretty much treaded water against the shekel in the first half of 2009, rising only 3% in six months. This was an increase of only 12 agorot in the representative rate, which was set at NIS 3.919 yesterday, down another 0.4%.

In June, the dollar kept quite close to the NIS 4 level, moving around in the NIS 3.88-NIS 4.01 band.

The dollar was influenced mainly by a wide range of macroeconomic factors over this period: the country's financial state, the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the global economic crisis, natural disasters, elections and decisions by the Bank of Israel on interest rates and the purchase of foreign currency. All this uncertainty makes it difficult, if not impossible, to forecast what the dollar will do.

For the most part the shekel-dollar rate is influenced by how the dollar moves in world markets.

At the beginning of 2008 the euro was worth $1.42, about where it is today. The dollar's chart against the euro, and other major currencies, basically reflects the way the greenback moves against the shekel, despite wishful attempts to move the forex markets in the other direction.

The Bank of Israel has continued its $100 million a day in foreign currency purchases, as it attempts to keep the shekel from rising too much against the dollar - but this is not enough to swim against the global tides.
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Photoshop republic
Blogger posts photo of pro-regime rally which appears to have been doctored.
Dead Sea, candidate
PA backtracks and supports Dead Sea in '7 natural wonders' contest.
Special Offers
Advertisement
hotel Jerusalem
David Citadel Hotel, come stay at the finest of Jerusalem hotels.
ISRAEL ARMY SURPLUS STORE
IDF insignia,Uniforms, Paladium Boots Watches, Israel Army T-shirts & Collectibles
Dead Sea Skin Care
Quality cosmetics from the Dead Sea. Coupon code HAARETZ for 12% off!
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on online reservations
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
More Headlines
23:51 Netanyahu: Obama was right, U.S.-Israel bond unbreakable
18:11 Iran opposition: Election result 'unacceptable'
20:40 Naomi Klein: Oppose the state, not the people
23:58 IDF opens major West Bank checkpoint to Palestinian foot traffic
00:17 Rome gives honorary citizenship to Gilad Shalit
19:55 Thousands support Israeli doctor accused of complicity in torture
17:00 Palestinians backtrack, support Dead Sea for '7 wonders'
20:58 WATCH: Daily news round-up from Israel
23:55 Court: IDF must toughen charges for shooting of bound Palestinian
22:30 New task force rounds up over 300 foreign workers in Tel Aviv raid
18:43 Residents of northern Israel evacuate homes in the path of brush fires
23:56 Peres to Saudi King: Meet me in Jerusalem, or in Riyadh
19:11 Did Ahmadinejad fail again at doctoring photos?
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Site rules |
| Israel 2009 election results | Makom: Engaging on Israel
| Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved