Weekly Review: 4/9- 8/9/2011

Trading on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) during the first week in September was marked by sharp declines in all leading indices.
  •  The TA-25 index, which decreased 6.1% over the week, is 19.9% lower than its beginning-of-the-year level, following a 16% increase in 2010.
  • The TA-100 index, which lost 6.2%, is 22.0% lower than at the beginning of the year, following a 15% increase in 2010.
  • The TA-Banks and TA Real Estate-15 fell 7.9% and 7.5% respectively, while the TA Blue Tech- 50 index fell by 1.9%.
  • The Treasury floated government bonds on the local market equaling US $420 million. The year-to-date total of government bond issues comes to US $11.1 billion, as opposed to US $15.2 billion for the entire 2010 year.
  • According to Bank of Israel figures released this week, during the month of July 2011 foreign investors realized about $2 billion in Treasury bills. However, during the same period, foreign investors purchased government non-linked bonds on TASE, valued at about 1.4 billion, net. In addition, nonresidents sold shares worth about $60 million, after net investments of approximately $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011.
  • The NIS/dollar exchange rate on September 8 came to 3.681 NIS, a weekly increase of 2.7% against the shekel and bringing the year-to-date appreciation of the dollar to 3.7%, after depreciating 6% in 2010.
    The NIS/Euro exchange rate on September 8 came to 5.172 up 1.4% over the last week. The Euro has appreciated 9.2% against the NIS since the beginning of the year, after depreciating 12.9% in 2010.