Market Report / Shamir Investments stock climbs 122%

Stocks were flat yesterday on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange with the benchmark TA-25 off 0.2%, closing at 1,173 points, and the broader TA-100 up by less than 0.1% to end the day at 1,087 points. Turnover was below average at NIS 1.5 billion.

The TASE will be open for only three days this week due to observation of the Rosh Hashanah holiday on Thursday and Friday. Trading on Ahad Ha'am was also quiet yesterday as Wall Street was on vacation for Labor Day.

The Bank of Israel purchased a few tens of millions of dollars on the forex market yesterday morning, but the dollar still fell by almost 0.2% against the shekel; the representative rate was set at NIS 3.772. The euro rose 0.1% against the shekel to a representative rate of NIS 4.857.

Oil and gas exploration shares once again drew the most investor attention and a large turnover, but the results for the stocks were mixed. Ratio fell 5.7%, Delek Drilling lost 4.5% and Delek Energy was down 3.8%; Avner lost 5.1% and Modiin fell 3.8%. On the up side, Globe Exploration climbed 21.3% on the announcement that Yuli Ofer's oil exploration partnership was negotiating to buy a 15% stake in Globe's licenses.

Shamir Investments Swing rocketed up 122.3% after Ofer called a press conference yesterday morning to announce he would concentrate the natural gas operations of his group under Shamir's auspices. Shamir will now hold 51% of Yuli Ofer Oil Exploration Limited Partnership, which it acquired for free.

El-Ad Canada fell about 10% on extremely low turnover on its first day of trading since its IPO. (See story on Page 8. )

The Ofer family's company Melisron gained 2% as the anticipated NIS 1.7 billion deal with British Israel - which would combine the firms into Israel's biggest shopping mall owner, with 24 malls valued at NIS 11 billion total - nears completion. The Azrieli Group will then fall far behind, with malls worth a total of some NIS 6.5 billion. British Israel climbed 6.6% yesterday.

Bank Hapoalim rose 0.5% after raising NIS 14 billion in bonds on Sunday. (See story on Page 8. ) Bank Leumi lost 0.6% yesterday.