Market Report / Obama drags Tel Aviv down, too

Barack Obama sent the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange down sharply yesterday, as Israeli shares imitated Wall Street's plunge last Friday after the American president announced his plans to place restrictions on U.S. banks.

The TA-25 fell 2.3% yesterday and closed at 1,129 points, and the TA-100 lost 2.6% and ended the day at 1,066 points. The Real Estate-15 droped 2.1%. Turnover was NIS 1.7 billion, lower than last week's average but higher than usual lately for a Sunday, with foreign investors still off for the weekend.

Both the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq lost more than 2% on Friday. But Rafi Gozlan, macro strategist at Leader Capital Markets, said yesterday, "The positive momentum in world markets is starting to run out. The proposed bank reforms in the U.S. are an excuse for profit taking," he said. In response to Obama's statements, volatility indexes rose sharply.

Bank Leumi fell 3% as chairman Eitan Raff announced he would retire when his current term runs out in May, opening the fight over his replacement. Bank Hapoalim fell 2.4% after the bank's board approved a three-year plan for 2010-2012 last Thursday. (See story, Page 8.)

Delek Real Estate was down 2.8%. Yitzhak Tshuva's company is selling three gas stations and some land for NIS 43 million to its sister firm Delek Israel. (See story, Page 8.)

A number of oil and gas exploration stocks bucked the trend yesterday: Delek Drilling rose 1.2%, Zerah jumped 11.8% and Avner remained unchanged. The three reported Thursday on preliminary findings of signs of oil in their exploratory well near Arad, as well as on their intention to continue examining the findings.

Teva lost 2.5%. Africa Israel dropped 4.4%, Given Imaging fell 6.7% and Koor was off 4.7%.