TASE- The Week in Review: January 31 – February 4, 2010

The first trading week of February on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) was marked by a mix trend.

The TA-25 index which didn't change over the week, remained 1% lower from its level at the beginning of this year, after a sharp rise of 75% rate of return attained in 2009.

The TA-75 index which slightly dropped 0.3% this week is 6.5% higher from his levels at the beginning of the year, after total increase of 150% in 2009.

Shares of major real estate companies stood out this week with an increase of about 1%. The Tel-Tech index of technology companies remained unchanged while the shares of major financial institutions dropped 0.7%.

Bank Leumi, a TA-25 company, raised this week US $620 million in corporate bonds. This is the second largest public offering of corporate bonds in the TASE. From the beginning of 2010, the total amount raised in corporate bond issues comes to US $1.2 billion, compared with approx. US $9.3 billion in the entire year of 2009.

The Israeli treasury raised US $320 million this week in a local government bond issue, bringing the 2010 total to US $1.6 billion.

The Bank of Israel published this week figures which indicates that foreign investors investment in December was approximately US $60 million, which brings the 2009 total to US $1.8 billion the entire year. The Bank of Israel inflation expectation in 2010 is of 2.5% - the rate that matches the target range set by the government (3% -1%), compared to 3.9% in 2009.

About TASE

Established in September 1935, the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange is Israel’s sole stock exchange, offering an increasingly sophisticated range of products to investors, including equity, corporate bonds, treasury bills and notes, index products and derivatives. The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange features 622 companies listing equities, 372 index-tracking products, 38 series of government bonds, 594 series of corporate bonds and 1218 mutual funds. As of January 2010, the exchange’s market capitalization in equities was over US$194 billion. In recent years, the exchange has enhanced its international presence, signing Memorandums of Understanding with the London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and NYSE-Euronext.

Visit the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's Website: www.tase.co.il