Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) during the last week of December was marked by high volatility, culminating in increases in most leading share price indices.
The TA-25 index gained 1.6% over the week, closing the year with a 15.8% return, after recording a 75% gain in 2009. On the 29th of December, the index hit a record level of 1330.80 points.
The TA-100 index, which gained 1.5%, ended the year up 14.9%, after spiking 89% in 2009. On the 29th of December, the index hit a record level of 1228.52 points.
The TA-Finance and TA Real Estate-15 indices increased 1.0% and 0.7% this week respectively, while the Tel Tech-15 was off 0.6%.
Seven companies completed bond offerings this week, raising US $0.5 billion debt capital. In 2010 the private sector raised some $US 3.5 billion in equity and US $11.3 billion in debt capital, as opposed to US $1.7 billion and US $9.3 billion, respectively in 2009.
The Governor of the Bank of Israel announced that the interest rate would remain unchanged, at 2.0% in January 2011.
The Central Bureau of Statistics raised its 2010 growth forecast to 4.5% from the previous estimate of 4%.
Figures released by the Bank of Israel indicate that the composite State-of-the-Economy index gained 0.1% in November, completing a 3% increase since the beginning of the year.
