Yesterday ended with a 0.6% drop in the TA-25, which closed at 1,119 points.

Long-term fixed-income Shahars dropped sharply by 1-1.3%. The dollar strengthened yesterday by more than 1% and reached a representative rate of NIS 4.23. This is about where the dollar started the year.

Since its low poimnt of NIS 3.94 in the middle of May, the dollar has risen about 7.5%.

"At the end of the day, the series of rate cuts that the Bank of Israel carried out did the job and weakened the shekel, without any direct intervention in the forex market," said GIFT Assets chief economist Eran Basson.
  
 Next week, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, is expected to announce interest rates for July - and most economists predict he will leave them unchanged.

Teva (TASE: TEVA) gained 0.9% yesterday.

The TASE announced the new composition of market indexes, which will take effect on July 1. IDB Holdings (TASE: IDBH) will drop out of the TA-25 to be replaced by Oil Refineries.

Oil Refineries rose 0.1% while IDB Holdings fell 0.9%.

Another big change is the entrance of Elbit Medical Imaging (TASE: EMIT) into the Real Estate-15 (yes, this is a real estate firm), instead of Azorim.

Elbit Medical had left the index six months ago after its revenues from real estate dropped to under 50% of its total revenues. The share rose 0.1%. The real estate index fell 0.1% for the day, but was up 2.1% for the week.