There were slight gains on TASE on Monday, with lower than usual trading volumes, according to The Jerusalem Post’s Internet edition late Monday evening. Meanwhile, the Bank of Israel has reduced the January interest rate.
The TA-100 gained 0.4 percent to 497.06, while the Maof index of the 25 largest companies was up 0.56 percent to 518.4. The Tel-tech was down 1.5 percent to 408.1; trading volume was NIS 185 million, reported the daily.
According to the report, Bezeq closed up 0.2 percent. On the same day, the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reported that the government will allow Bezeq to increase its stake in satellite company YES to 50 percent from 30 percent. Bezeq is interested in increasing its stake because of the expected competition with the cable companies over domestic communications and fast Internet.
The financial sector led the gains. Bank Poalim was up 1.3 percent, Leumi 0.9 percent, and Migdal 1.3 percent. Clal Insurance slipped 0.5 percent.
Mizrahi Bank rose 0.6 percent after a sharp rise yesterday. The Board of Management of mortgage bank Bank Tefahot, in which Mizrahi holds a 86 percent stake, said today that it will give out a dividend of NIS 130m. Bank Mizrahi will receive NIS 112m. of the dividend.
Art-In lost 14.2 percent. Today it was reported that the company is negotiating the sale of its online trading business, conducted through subsidiary 4sale. One of the companies interested in buying 4sale is thought to be Matav, which already owns a 26 percent stake.
Metalink gained 3.20 percent, after Sunday saying that it will buy back up to $10m. worth of its own shares. Delta was up 4.1 percent. Israel Chemicals rose 0.9 percent. Today Merrill Lynch gave the company a new ‘Accumulate’ rating, and estimated the company’s value at $1.7 billion, compared to its current market capitalization of $1.45b.
In another report by The Jerusalem Post, the Bank of Israel announced earlier Monday afternoon that it will reduce January interest rates by 0.2 percent, thus making for a 9.5 percent prime rate – Albawaba.com
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