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midastouch017

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midastouch017

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Monday, 11/21/2005 11:37:09 AM

Monday, November 21, 2005 11:37:09 AM

Post# of 3562

Political shakeup sent TASE reeling on heavy turnover
21.11.2005 | 18:25
Tal Levy

The spike in political uncertainty as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bolted the Likud and pursued dissolution of his own government overcame generally upbeat economic news, and Tel Aviv stocks retreated on Monday. Spurred by its new chairman, Amir Peretz, the Labor Party also announced its resignation from the coalition. Elections will apparently take place in March.

Even Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer joined the calls to bring elections forward, to dispel the uncertainty that is upsetting the marketplace.

Jitters were evident on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Stocks began the day with a loss of about 1% that was cut by half by mid-day. But then the momentum of the negative trend intensified, especially after the Israeli army and Hezbollah forces exchanged gunshots by the northern town of Metullah.

At the end the TA-25 index lost 1.4% to 752.3 points, the TA-100 index retreated 1.2% and the TelTech-15 index lost 0.3%. Turnover was heavy at more than a billion shekels.

Yet the economic news remains positive. On Sunday the Bank of Israel said the index tracking the economy rose 0.1% in October, indicating that economic activity continued to expand. Yesterday the Central Bureau of Statistics announced that industrial output picked up to 5.9% in the third quarter, in annualized terms, compared with 4.3% in the second quarter and 3.2% in the first quarter. In the first nine months of 2005 turnover in commerce and services increased 6.8% compared with the same period of 2004.

In parallel The Economist announced it was raising its growth forecast for Israel to 4.7% for this year, and 4.2% for 2006.

Teva (TASE, Nasdaq:TEVA) retreated 0.8%, but its share price has still risen 20% in the last month.

Teva stock




Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI ) sank 1.6%. The bank is in talks to sell Psagot and a provident fund that together have NIS 60 billion worth of assets under management.

While on the banks, shares in Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI ) fell 0.4%.

Israel Chemicals (TASE: CHIM) dropped 3.1% after CIBC World Markets downgraded the Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, which operates in the same sphere as ICL.

Matrix (TASE: MTRX) stood out with a 5.1% leap after today publishing strong results for the third quarter of 2005. third-quarter revenues were NIS 269 million, up 20% from the same period of 2004. Nine-month revenues this year amounted to NIS 787 million, an increase of 21% year over year. Its third-quarter net shot up 76% against the parallel to NIS 12.4 million.

Retalix (Nasdaq:RTLX) crept up 0.2% after reporting its first deal with a tier-1 Asian corporation – actually, Woolworths of Australia, which is rolling out the Israeli company's software in 730 Woolworths outlets and another 120 BIG-W household appliance stores. The deal could generate up to $70 million revenues over ten years.

Ormat Industries (TASE: ORMT) dropped 1.1%. Clal Finance Batucha analyst Yuval Ben-Zeev named eight reasons to invest in the stock, the most important being: positive business environment, good financial reports, and growth potential. He reiterated an Outperform rating and lifted its 12-month price target from NIS 32 to NIS 34, which is 10% above Ormat's opening level on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning. Ormat has a New York-traded subsidiary called Ormat Technologies (NYSE:ORA).

Essences maker Frutarom (LSE, TASE: FRUT) sank 4.6% despite posting results that proved its business grew for the 24th quarter in a row.

Strauss-Elite Industries (TASE: STEL) ended with a gain of 0.8% after having been ahead more than a percent during the day. Consolidated revenues climbed 14% to NIS 1.11 billion and its net profit jumped 50% year over year to NIS 56.5 million.

http://www.themarker.com/eng/article.jhtml?ElementId=%2Fibo%2Frepositories%2Fstories%2Fm1_2000%2Ftel...

Dubi


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