Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in the last week of October was marked by high volatility in the stock market and declines in most of the leading indices.
The TA-25 index dropped 0.1% this week and is now higher by 11% from its level at the beginning of the year, after an increase of 75% rate of return attained in 2009. On October 25, the TA-25 reached a new record at the value of 1,275.11 points.
The TA-100 index decreased in a similar rate and is now higher by 10% from its level at the beginning of this year. This follows a sharp increase of 89% in 2009.
The Real Estate-15 index and the Finance index dropped 1.7% and 1.1%, respectively. The Tel Tech-15, index of large technology companies, affected by trading on Nasdaq, rose by 2.5%.
The Israeli treasury sold its remaining holdings (11.7%) at Israel Discount Bank, whose shares are included in the TA-25 index, to institutional investors through Citigroup for US $230 million.
Four public offerings totaling US $ 240 million, and three corporate bonds issues, totaling US $85 million were conducted during the week. The total amount raised by the private sector in public offerings so far this year comes to US $2.7 billion - higher by 50% from the amount raised in the entire 2009. Also, US $9 billion was raised by the private sector in corporate bond issues from the beginning of the year – similar to the amount raised in all the previous year.
The Bank of Israel announced on keeping the interest rate for November 2010 unchanged at 2%.
Figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that unemployment rate in August was similar to the previous two months, totaling about 6.3%. From the beginning of the year the unemployment rate dropped by 0.9%.
