After yesterday's Wall Street declines, Tel Aviv trading opened with declines; dollar strengthens to 3.05 shekels

Trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opened today with declines following the negative trend yesterday on Wall Street, with banking, real estate and insurance indices trading down and the dollar strengthening to 3.05 shekels.

Trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opened with declines following yesterday's decline on Wall Street. The TA 125 index fell 1.2%, the TA 35 index lost 1.3% and the TA 90 index lost 1%. The banking index lost 1.2%, the real estate index lost 1.4% and the insurance index fell 2%. Among stocks with notable declines: Mega Ore lost 3.3%, Canon and OPC Energy fell 3% each, and Teva lost 2.5%. Notable gainers included Palo Alto, which gained 4%, and Kamtech, which gained 1.5%.

The dollar strengthened in the morning by 1% and traded for 3.05 shekels, and the euro strengthened by 0.9% and traded for 3.47 shekels. According to the report, Wall Street declines contributed to dollar strengthening against the shekel, because institutional bodies in Israel are committed to certain foreign asset exposure: when Wall Street rises they sell dollars and strengthen the shekel, and when it falls they buy dollars and weaken it.

Yossi Freiman, CEO of Prico Risk Management, Financing and Investments, said that fear of a security escalation is driving up fuel prices and increasing concern of a domino effect on the global economy, and that the yield of the 10-year U.S. government bond has returned to settle above 5%, which contributed last night to weakness in equity markets. According to him, potential shekel depreciation in the short term is limited, and the dollar needs to break through the 3.05-3.08 shekel range to move beyond 3.1 shekels, and in the long term the shekel may reach a new low.