TASE Indices Ended Mixed in Week; April (15th- 19th)

By Yomna Yasser On Apr 21, 2012

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) trading during the third week of April ended in mixed trading. The TA-25 index gained 2.0% over the week, bringing its year-to-date return to 6.2%. The TA-100 index gained 1.8% over the week as well, bringing its year-to-date increase to 8.2%.

In the meanwhile, the TA BlueTech-50 index increased 5.3% while the TA Banks and TA Real Estate-15 indices lost 1.7% and 1.5% respectively.

Year-to-date, the TA BlueTech-50 increased 22% while the TA Real Estate-15 and TA Banks indices gained 10% and 8% respectively.

The Government of Israel floated US $400 million bonds on the local market, bringing the year-to-date total of government bond issues to US $6.2 billion. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released March inflation figures, indicating that the CPI index increased 0.4% following two months during which the index was unchanged.

CBS figures also indicate that GDP increased 3.5% (annualized) during the second half of 2011, after rising 5.2% in the first half of that year.

The NIS/ US dollar exchange rate on 19 April came to 3.762 a weekly increase of 0.1% against the shekel. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has depreciated 1.5% against the NIS.

The NIS/Euro exchange rate on 19 April came to 4.9346, and remained unchanged relative to the previous week. Since the beginning of the year, the Euro has depreciated 0.1% against the NIS.

Established in September 1935, the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange is Israel’s sole stock exchange, offering an increasingly sophisticated range of products to investors, including equity, corporate bonds, treasury bills and notes, index products and derivatives. The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange features in March 2012: 576 companies listing equities, 433 index-tracking products, 34 series of government bonds, 672 series of corporate bonds and 1,261 mutual funds. As of March 2012, the exchange’s market capitalization in equities was about US$ 168 billion. In recent years, the exchange has enhanced its international presence, signing Memorandums of Understanding with the London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange and NYSE-Euronext.