Subscribe to Print Edition | Tue., March 18, 2008 Adar2 12, 5768 | | Israel Time: 03:05 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File

Last update - 03:10 17/03/2008 Tel Aviv takes its cue from Wall Street and tumbles By Yael Pollak Tags: Stock exchange, Wall Street  Even with the storms on the horizon and fears of a looming global crisis, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and in particular its employees, are working at their own pace. The TASE once again closed three hours early yesterday, at 2:15 P.M., due to work sanctions by the exchange's employees. But many investors were glad to see the day - and its losses - end earlier than usual. The TASE ended its first trading day of the week yesterday with losses, following big losses at the end of last week the world over, and in particular on Wall Street. The TA-25 lost 1.9% to close just over the 1,000 mark, at 1,004.7 points. The TA-100 lost 2.2% to close at 922.2 points. Turnover was NIS 1.6 billion. Advertisement On Thursday and Friday of last week the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, intervened in foreign currency trading and bought dollars, about $600 million worth, 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. Migdal Insurance group shares drew a lot of attention yesterday, as a result of the firm's cooperative venture with U.S. investment bank Bear Stearns through its Migdal Capital Markets subsidiary. Bear Stearns shares collapsed by 47% at the end of last week after reporting serious liquidity problems. Migdal is expected to exercise its option to buy out 50% of Bear Stearns' share in Migdal Capital Markets. The chairman of Migdal Capital Markets, Dan Laluz, said the company would not be affected in any way by the events related to Bear Stearns in the U.S. The Banks-5 index also drew quite a lot of attention yesterday - and fell a steep 4.5%. The main culprit was again Bank Hapoalim, which dropped 5.6% after reporting an accumulated $500 million loss on its U.S. mortgage backed securities last Thursday. It had previously revealed losses of $150 million of this amount. Since the start of 2008, the bank has lost 24% of its value, and is now 35% below its record high. Bank Leumi also fell, down 4.1% on NIS 110 million in turnover. Real Estate shares and mid- and small-caps, all considered to be much riskier than the blue chips and larger companies, also stood at the center of investors' attention. The Real Estate-15 fell by 4.3%. Among the shares that stood out yesterday was Africa Israel, down 5.5%. It fell 5.7% last Thursday. Over the past three months the share has lost 46% of its value. The Delek Group dropped 6.8%, and has now lost 38% since January. It is a full 50% below its high. Delek Real Estate, Elbit Medical Imaging, Jerusalem Economic and Nitsba all fell by over 5% during the shortened five hours of trading. Israel Chemicals had the day's largest volume, and actually rose 0.1%. Teva was down 3%, in the wake of losing 2% on Wall Street at the end of last week - after Citi lowered its rating on the generic drug manufacturer to Hold. The Tel Tech-15 lost "only" 1.5%. Elbit Systems was down 2.5%. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Facebook face-off Settlers win right to list country as Israel, not Palestine. Shin Bet.com The covert agency has deployed a new weapon: the blog.

Today Online Rightists arrested for storming village of yeshiva terrorist Responses: 168 Next IAF chief: Ground operation needed to stop rocket attacks Responses: 129 Court case reveals how settlers illegally grab W. Bank lands Responses: 110 Facebook face-off: Settlers win right to list country as Israel, not Palestine Responses: 47 Editorial: U.S. pressure for peace is welcome pressure Responses: 65 More Headlines 03:04 Israeli stocks tumble as world markets sink 00:27 Survey: Haniyeh more popular than Abbas in PA 22:27 PA downgrades renewed talks to protest settlement construction 02:28 Slain Jihad operative's son: 'Our entire family has turned Shi'ite' 01:59 Merkel offers 'tough, decisive' language on Iran nuke program 21:27 Israel approves lawsuits against PA over suicide bombings 22:01 Argentine Jews commemorate 1992 Israeli embassy bombing 22:40 MKs seek pardon for Omri Sharon 'to sit at father's bedside' 18:19 Facebook face-off: Settlers win right to list country as Israel, not Palestine 01:21 Mazuz weighs indicting judge for fraud and breach of trust 21:25 Arab MK to chief rabbis: Slam rabbinic calls to harm Arabs 21:13 PM: No chance Israel will cede E. Jerusalem areas like Har Homa Previous Editions Select Day 17 mar 16 mar 14 mar 13 mar 12 mar 11 mar 10 mar 09 mar 07 mar 06 mar 05 mar 04 mar

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