Wed: TASE suffers first loss in 2012

Elbit Systems and Israel Corp. were among the day's biggest losers, but Teva bucked the market.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) fell today. The Tel Aviv 25 Index fell 0.98% to 1,122.93 points, the Tel Aviv 100 Index fell 0.69% to 1,020.29 points, and the BlueTech 50 Index fell 0.54% to 283.36 points. Turnover was NIS 1.16 billion.

The TASE ended its eight-day winning streak today, with losses across the board, except for the Oil and Gas Index, on its first down day in 2012. The losses were in line with losses on European markets and drops at the opening on Wall Street amid new worries about the euro.

In the foreign currency market, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.849/$, up 0.42% on yesterday's representative rate

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

In the stock market, Delek Group (TASE: DLEKG) fell 0.8% and its gas exploration units Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling LP (TASE: DEDR.L) fell 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively, after the Petroleum Council rejected the companies' request to give liens on its Leviathan licenses to foreign banks as collateral for loans to finance development of Tamar. Their Tamar partner Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) rose 0.8%, for the biggest gain among Tel Aviv 25 shares, and their Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP (TASE:RATI.L) partner rose 2.3%.

Elbit Systems (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE: ESLT) fell 2.9% for the biggest loss among Tel Aviv 25 shares. Israel Chemicals (TASE: ICL) fell 2.2% to NIS x, on the day's biggest turnover of NIS 127 million. IBI Investment House today reiterated its "Buy" recommendation for the share, but cut its target price to NIS 53 from NIS 56. Israel Chemicals parent company, Israel Corporation (TASE: IL), fell 2.6%.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) rose 0.4%, after a presentation at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

In real estate, Elbit Imaging (Nasdaq: EMITF; TASE: EMIT) rose 20.1%, after announcing the sale of 27 US shopping centers for $1.43 billion, although it will see little profit on the deal.

Given Imaging (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN) rose 1.6%, after Oppenheimer & Co. raised its recommendation for the share to "Outperform" from "Market perform". Nova Measuring Instruments (Nasdaq:NVMI; TASE:NVMI) rose 5.9% on a large arbitrage gap. D Medical Industries (Nasdaq: DMED); TASE:DMED) rose 11.3% after obtaining EU CE Mark for its disposable insulin pump.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - undefined - on January 11, 2012

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012