Weekly Review: January 16-20, 2011

Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in the third week in January 2011 was highly volatile, with most of the leading indices closing down.

 

The TA-25 index gained some 0.1%, a cumulative gain of 0.8% since the beginning of the year and following a 16% return in 2010.

 

The TA-100 index remained unchanged over the week for a cumulative gain of 1.7% since the beginning of the year and following a 15% return in 2010.

 

The Tel-Tech 15 gained this week 1.2% while the TA Banks and Real Estate 15 index declined 2.2% and 0.7%, respectively.

 

This week the Israeli government sold 5% of its holdings in Bank Leumi, a constituent of the TA-25 index, to various investors for US $366 million. The government still holds a 6.5% interest in the bank.

 

The Israeli government floated US $330 million bonds on TASE, bringing total government bond issues since the beginning of the year to US $780 million.

 

According to data released by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the CPI index rose 0.4% in December, bringing the 2010 inflation rate to 2.7% and following a 3.9% CPI increase in each of the previous two years.

 

The Bank of Israel announced that The Composite State of the Economy Index gained 0.7% in December, bringing the total 2010 increase to 4.2%.

 

The NIS/US dollar exchange rate on 20 January came to 3.599, indicating a weekly increase of 1.4%, following a 6% appreciation of the NIS in 2010.

 

The NIS/Euro exchange rate on 20 January came to 4.8587, indicating a 2.2% weekly increase, following a 12.9% appreciation of the NIS in 2010.