After a joint statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump on Monday and the Bank of Israel’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged, the Tel Aviv stock market opened Tuesday with sizable gains.
The TA-35 rose 1.29%, the TA-125 climbed 1.54% and the TA-90 jumped 2.31%. The TA-banks index gained 1.3%; Discount Bank rose about 2%. Insurance stocks saw sharp gains: Harel jumped 5%, Clal Insurance rose 4.4%, and Migdal and Phoenix each gained about 4.2%.
Trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was volatile on Monday. The market opened with roughly 1% gains in the main indexes, but after the Bank of Israel’s rate announcement the market turned lower; by the close the TA-35 was down 0.1%, the broader Tel Aviv index fell 0.6% and the TA-125 lost 0.2%.
The joint White House statement followed Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, in which Trump said the Israeli prime minister had accepted the U.S. plan to end the Gaza war and secure the release of hostages.
“After the statement by Trump and Netanyahu yesterday, we saw a turbulent opening on the Tel Aviv bourse this morning,” Yaniv Pagot, vice president of trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, said at the open. “Within 15 minutes of the opening there was NIS 600 million in turnover. Leading equity indexes opened about 1.5% higher. The shekel continued to strengthen against the dollar and was fixed at about 3.30 shekels to the dollar. Government bonds also reflect the optimism. That said, the market rightly still prices in a great deal of caution given that it takes two to tango. We are all watching closely for Hamas’s response. If there is a positive reply, there is room to continue the recent trend, because it would completely change Israel’s economic and security horizon and is likely to affect both fiscal policy and monetary policy.”