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| • The TA-25 index lost 4.7% over the week, bringing its year-to-date decreased to 0.4%.
• The TA-100 index fell 4.8% over the week, bringing its year-to-date return to 1.1%.
• The TA Banks and Real Estate-15 indices lost 7.3% and 5.7% respectively over the week, while the TA BlueTech-50 index retreated 2.9%.
Year-to-date, the TA BlueTech-50 increased 19% and the TA Real Estate-15 increased 1.4% while the TA Banks index declined 0.7%.
• The performance of the TA Com index, launched in April of last year, was particularly noteworthy this week. The index plunged 19%, bringing its year-to-date decline to 36%, after losing 37% in 2011. This downward trend can be attributed to the ongoing erosion of profitability of Israel's telecom companies, resulting from the increase in competition in this industry.
• The Government of Israel floated US $490 million bonds on the local market this past week, bringing the year-to-date total of government bond issues to US $7.9 billion.
• Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released inflation figures, indicating that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.9% in April, and 1.3% in the first trimester of 2012.
According to preliminary estimates released by the CBS, anticipated GDP growth for the first quarter of 2012 came to 3% (annualized), following 3.2% growth in the preceding quarter and 3.3% in the third quarter of 2011.
• The NIS/US dollar exchange rate on 17 May came to 3.828 a weekly increase of 0.1% against the shekel. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has appreciated 0.2% against the NIS.
• The NIS/Euro exchange rate on 17 May came to 4.8526, a decrease of 1.8% relative to the previous week. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro has depreciated 1.7% against the NIS.
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