Bi-Weekly Review: 4 - 15 March 2012 Trading on TASE in the first half of March ended up for all leading indices.

• The TA-25 index gained 1.6% over the first half of the month, bringing its year-to-date return to 2.2%.

• The TA-100 index climbed 1.6% over the two-week period, bringing its year-to-date increase to 3.8%.

• The TA Banks stood out with a 7.2% increase over the first half of the month, while the TA BlueTech-50 and TA Real Estate-15 indices increased 3.5% and 1.2% respectively.

•  As for year-to-date returns, the BlueTech-50 stands out with a 13% increase, while the TA Real Estate-15 and TA Banks posted more modest cumulative gains of 5%-7%.

• The Government of Israel floated US $735 million bonds on the local market in two separate auctions over the two weeks, bringing the year-to-date total of government bond issues to US $4.5 billion.

• The Central Bureau of Statistics released updated growth figures, indicating that GDP growth in 2011 came to 4.7%, as opposed to 4.8% in 2010 and 0.8% in 2009.

• The NIS/ US dollar exchange rate on 15 March came to 3.784 a decrease of 0.2% against the shekel in the first half of the month. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has depreciated 1.0% against the NIS.

• The NIS/Euro exchange rate on 15 March came to 4.9417, a 1.8% decrease over the two-week period. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro is up 0.1% against the NIS.