Weekly Review: 25 - 29 March 2012 TASE's most leading share price posted gains in the final week of trading in March, closing the first quarter of 2012 with positive returns across the board.

 •  The TA-25 index gained 0.8% over the week, bringing its quarterly return to 3.6%.

• The TA-100 index gained 0.7% over the week, bringing its year-to-date increase to 5.5%.

• The and TA Real Estate and TA BlueTech-50 index indices increased 1.0% and 0.6% respectively, while TA Banks posted a 0.3% decrease.

• First quarter returns for the BlueTech-50 index came to 16% increase, while the TA Banks and the TA Real Estate-15 closed the quarter up 7.4% and 5.9%, respectively.

• The Government of Israel floated US $430 million bonds on the local market, bringing the year-to-date total of government bond issues to US $5.3 billion.

• The Bank of Israel announced that it was leaving April interest rates unchanged, for the third month running, at 2.5%.
In addition, the central bank released growth projections for 2012-2013 indicating that GDP is expected to grow 3.1% in 2012 and 3.5% in 2013.

• The NIS/ US dollar exchange rate on 29 March came to 3.734 a slight weekly decrease against the shekel. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has depreciated 2.3% against the NIS.

• The NIS/Euro exchange rate on 29 March came to 4.9578, a 0.1% increase over the week. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro has appreciated 0.4% against the NIS.