Weekly Review: February 20-24, 2011

Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) over the last week was marked by high share price volatility and declines in all of the leading indices.

 

The TA-25 index dropped 4.6% over the week, and is still off by 4% from its beginning of the year level, following a 16% return in 2010.

 

The TA-100 index which lost 4.5% over the week is some 3.9% lower than at the beginning of the year, following a 15% return in 2010.

 

The TA Finance and the Real Estate 15 index declined 5.6% and 5.2%, respectively. The Tel-Tech 15 dropped 3.5%.

 

The Israeli government issued US $370 million bonds on TASE this week, bringing total government bond issues since the beginning of the year to US $2.8 billion.

 

The Bank of Israel increases the interest rate for March 2011 by 0.25% to a level of 2.5%. The Bank of Israel's composite state-of-the-economy index for January 2011 increased by 0.4%, Indicating continued growth, following an increase of about 5% in 2010.

 

The NIS/US dollar exchange rate on February 24 was 3.658, a weekly increase of 0.9%. From the beginning of the year the US dollar rose by about 3.1% against the NIS, following a 6% appreciation of the NIS in 2010.

 

The NIS/Euro exchange rate on February 24 was 5.0349, a weekly increase of 2.3%. From the beginning of the year the Euro rose by about 6.3% against the NIS, following a 12.9% appreciation of the NIS in 2010.