Markets in Brief

Bank Hapoalim yesterday joined the consensus that Dubai's trouble is of no real significance to the greater world economy. Recovery will continue despite the "Dubai accident," wrote Hapoalim chief economist Leo Leiderman (see story at left). He also took the trouble to point out that the government company Dubai World is not, repeat not, defaulting: The issue here is a debt mo-ra-to-ri-um. However, until the precise arrangement for Dubai World's debt is known, the markets will stay jittery, Leiderman predicts. (TheMarker)

The costs involved in building Highway 431 helped reduced Africa Israel's infrastructures arm Danya Cebus to an operating loss of NIS 23 million for the third quarter. Third-quarter revenues dropped by 36% against the parallel quarter to NIS 443 million, and nine-month revenues sank by 24% to NIS 1.46 billion. At September's end, the company's backlog of orders had sunk to NIS 1.2 billion, from NIS 1.8 billion at year-end 2008. (Michael Rochvarger)

Eli Yones, the chief executive of Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, on Thursday sold NIS 9.2 million worth of shares in the bank he runs, offloading nearly 240,000 at NIS 33.50 apiece. He remains with 1.72 million shares - a stake of 0.77%. In recent months he's sold NIS 30 million worth of the bank's stock. When joining Mizrahi-Tefahot from Bank Hapoalim in 2008 he received stock options convertible into 2.5% of the bank's shares. (Eti Aflalo)

Engineering company Baran has shifted to an operating profit for the third quarter. The company feels a change in the air, it says, but because of the nature of its operations (big projects), it doesn't expect that happy change to affect its financial statements until the end of this year or the start of 2010. For the third quarter, Baran reported improvements in all parameters against the previous quarter, if not the year-ago period. Revenues shrank 36% from a year earlier to NIS 257 million, in part because the company ceased consolidation with a subsidiary. Yet Baran achieved operating profit of NIS 19.6 million, compared with an operating loss of NIS 5.3 million in the same period of 2008, in part thanks to cost-cutting. It netted NIS 4.5 million, versus a loss of NIS 11.7 million in the same period of 2008. (Tal Levy)

Analyst Nir Zonenberg of Meitav repeated a Sector Perform rating for Israel Corporation yesterday following the latter's release of its third-quarter financials. Israel Corporation is a holding company and its share of the losses by group companies came to nearly $28 million in the quarter, mostly because of the $208 million quarterly loss posted by Zim Integrated Shipping Services. But Zonenberg says that investor attitudes toward Israel Corporation should be shaped more by Israel Chemicals; he says ICL's current share price is based on the optimistic scenario. He recommends investment in Israel Corporation rather than directly in ICL. (TheMarker)

While the rest of the world (with certain glaring exceptions, such as Dubai) has been experiencing some degree of recovery, that can't be said of Aura Investments just yet. The company reported a 32% drop in third-quarter revenues to NIS 9 million. Following a NIS 16 million downward repricing of its properties, the company's operating loss expanded to NIS 17 million. The net loss attributable to shareholders grew more than threefold to NIS 14 million, from NIS 3.7 million a year earlier. The company's auditors are worried about its cash burn and liabilities maturing in the next 12 months. For the first nine months of 2009, Aura's cash burn was NIS 57 million while in the same period of 2008 it had cash flow of NIS 23 million. (Yael Halak)

Zerah Oil and Gas Exploration, Avner Oil & Gas and Delek Drilling have officially begun exploratory drilling at the Tzuk Tamrur 4 site, onshore near the Dead Sea. The companies plan to drill 2 kilometers deep over two months, at a cost of $4.5 million. The site is the first that energy baron Yitzhak Tshuva, who owns the controlling interest in Delek and Avner, has touched in a decade. His group has traditionally gone for offshore explorations and hit pay dirt with the Tamar and Dalit explorations in the middle of the Mediterranean. (Vadim Sviderski)

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has filed a second citizen's petition in the hope of blocking a generic version of its blockbuster drug Copaxone, after the first citizen's petition failed. The thrust of Teva's argument to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is that all generic versions of Copaxone, a treatment for multiple sclerosis, must undergo full-blown clinical testing: It isn't enough to show that the original and copycat drug have, say, the same active ingredient. Making Copaxone is incredibly difficult, Teva explains, so that even if a drug seems to be the same, it has to be proved to have the same clinical attributes. Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Mylan want to launch generic versions; the Indian company Natco has already done so, selling a copycat version in Ukraine and India, but Teva says it isn't even close to the real Copaxone. (TheMarker)