Yesterday's volatile trading day on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was par for the entire week, as after two days of gains which saw the TASE up 5%, the screens fell into the red once again.
The TA-25 lost 0.8% to close at 1,039 points, and the broader TA-100 fell 0.7% to close at 971 points. The TelTech-15 dropped a steep 3.5%. Turnover was NIS 1.6 billion.
The pessimism flooding Europe and other world markets yesterday, as well as small losses on Wednesday on Wall Street, combined to set the tone for the TASE yesterday.
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As usual in past weeks, the stock exchange on Ahad Ha'am closed early once again, at 2:15 p.m. Workers are continuing their labor sanctions, and management is continuing to close the exchange early to prevent any major damage to investors and trading.
For the week, the TA-25 rose 1.6% and the TA-100 was up 2.2%. The big headlines all over the media about forecasts of an economic slowdown in Israel continued all week, as well as dire descriptions of a possible recession. But none of this managed to stop the stock exchange this week.
It seems present price levels incorporate part of the expectations for the slowdown, here and around the world, but as bad news crops up, it is clear the trend will change direction.
The TelTech-15 index of high-tech stocks led the way down yesterday. VeriFone stood out with a 17% crash and a new low, after falling a similar amount the previous day on the Nasdaq. It had announced poor results for the first three quarters of last year on Wednesday, and over the past four months the share has plummeted, wiping out NIS 11 billion in value. VeriFone also reported almost $37 million in write-downs on inventory.
Alvarion, which fell steeply on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, opened the day with a sizable negative arbitrage gap, and then dropped 6% to close the gap. Alvarion's bad news was the cancellation of an Australian government broadband tender, for which the company had been competing. At the same time, the company was able to announce providing a WiMax network in the Caribbean, whose value will be in the $20-30 million range.
Real-estate stocks bucked the trend yesterday, and the Real Estate-15 rose 1.1% for the day. For the week the index rose 4.3%.
Africa Israel has jumped 15% in the past three days. Delek Real Estate rose 1.8% yesterday in light of a presentation to analysts, but is still down 40% from the beginning of 2008.
Israel Chemicals continued to trade at record highs, after signs of higher potash prices have continued to stream in. The share rose 0.9% and rose 8% over the past week. Its parent, The Israel Corporation, lost 1.65 for the day after jumping 10% on Wednesday after its controlling shareholder, Idan Ofer, bought over NIS 70 million in additional stock.
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