Wall Street, gas and oil stocks pull TA-100 up 1.7%

Stocks opened the short trading week up strongly, following big gains on Wall Street on Friday. Oil and natural gas exploration shares also pulled the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange higher yesterday.

The blue chip TA-25 gained 1.6% to close at 1,175 points and the broader TA-100 was up 1.7% to end the day at 1,086 points. The Real Estate-15 rose 1.3% and the Banks-5 gained 1.5%. Turnover was a bit below average at NIS 1.5 billion.

The TASE will be open for only the first three days of the week due to the Rosh Hashanah holidays on Thursday and Friday.

On Friday the Dow Jones jumped 128 points for its fourth consecutive day of gains, mostly due to a better-than-expected report on U.S. employment released Friday. The Dow is still 6.8% below the 2010 peak it reached on April 26, but has regained its losses since the start of the year - after a dismal August.

In their weekly market survey, Bank Hapoalim analysts said stock prices were at an "interesting level," and the main risk was developments in the world economy, and especially the U.S. At Leumi, analysts predicted continued volatility in the short term, with "a likelihood that negative sentiments would continue," based on economic data from overseas.

Oil and gas exploration partnership Modiin rocketed up 23.3% and Israel Land Development Corporation climbed 16.6%. The two firms drew interest after their partner in the Myra and Sara offshore fields published estimates of the volume of natural gas in the two fields. Modiin later released a statement saying the figures could not be relied on, and trading in the two shares moderated. (See story on Page 8. )

Other gas and oil shares also rose strongly, with the Ratio Oil Exploration partnership gaining 12.1% and Globe Exploration up 11.9%.

Trading in real estate companies British Israel and Melisron was halted after British announced it was negotiating to sell control of the company to Melisron. (See story on Page 8. ) British Israel rose 3.9% on the news, while Melisron lost 0.2%.

Africa Israel rose 0.9%.

Can-Fite climbed 12.9% on its announcement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the beginning of Phase III clinical trials of its flagship drug, CF101, being developed to treat dry-eye syndrome. (See story on Page 8. )

Emblaze sold its holdings in Formula for $139 million to Asseco Poland, Europe's fifth largest software company, and Formula rose 0.2%.

Yitzhak Tshuva's Delek Group is significantly cutting its holdings in Delek Automotive after 12 years of control. Gil Agmon, Delek Auto's CEO is the prospective buyer. Agmon is presently the second largest shareholder in Delek Auto. The Delek Group rose 1.2% and Delek Automotive climbed 4.5%.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.