Sun: Israel Chemicals fails to drag down TASE

Israel Chemicals and its parent Israel Corp. both fell on the resignation of the former's CEO, while Mellanox and Delek Group bucked the market.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) rose today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index rose 0.12% to 1,114.55 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index rose 0.35% to 1,010.26 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index rose 1.75% to 280.97 points. Turnover was NIS 660 million.

The TASE continued its slow rally for the sixth straight session this year, after hovering on either side of its starting level in very thin trading.

In the foreign currency market, options pointed to a 0.04% gain in the shekel-dollar exchange rate, compared with Friday's representative rate, to NIS 3.841/$, but a 0.47% drop in the shekel-euro exchange rate to NIS 4.896/€.

In the bond market, long-term Shahar unlinked government bonds were unchanged and long-term Galil CPI-linked bonds ranged between losses of 0.1% and gains of 0.1%. The corporate bond benchmark Tel-Bond 20 Index rose 0.01%.

In the stock market, Israel Chemicals (TASE: ICL) fell 2.5% on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 56 million, after CEO Akiva Mozes announced his resignation. Parent company Israel Corporation (TASE: IL) also fell 2.5%, for the biggest losses among Tel Aviv 25 shares.

Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) fell 2.3% after chairman Ilan Ben Dov announced his resignation. Rivals Cellcom Israel (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) fell 1.8% and Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co (TASE: BEZQ) fell 0.2%.

Mellanox Technologies (Nasdaq:MLNX; TASE:MLNX) rose 3.3% for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, followed by Delek Group (TASE: DLEKG) with a gain of 2.7%, and Perrigo Company (Nasdaq:PRGO; TASE:PRGO), with a gain of 1.7%.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) fell 0.2%.

Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) rose 0.7% and Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) rose 0.8%.

Elsewhere in the market, Prolor Biotech (AMEX: PBTH; TASE: PBTH) rose another 6.4% today, after Thursday's jump of 10.5%, and Pluristem Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PSTI; DAX: PJT: PLTR) rose 4% after rising 3.3% on Thursday.

Modiin Energy LP (TASE:MDIN.L) rose 8.2% ahead of the expiry of options. Alvarion (Nasdaq: ALVR; TASE: ALVR) rose 10.6% on a positive arbitrate gap.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - undefined - on January 8, 2012

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