Latest news with #TelAvivStockExchange
See - Sada Elbalad
3 days ago
- Business
- See - Sada Elbalad
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Sees Sharp Drop amid Rising Political, Security Tensions
Taarek Refaat The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange experienced a sharp decline today, Tuesday, amidst escalating political and security tensions, with the Israeli government considering expanding its military operations in Gaza. The Tel Aviv 35 Index dropped by 1.50%, reaching 2945.40 points, while the Tel Aviv 125 Index fell by 1.89%, closing at 2993.16 points. The Blotek Global Index also saw a decrease of 1.01%, reaching 526.23 points, and the "All Bond" corporate bond index dropped by 0.12%, ending at 408.53 points. The total trading volume amounted to 4.45 billion shekels in stocks and 2.91 billion shekels in bonds, reflecting investor uncertainty amid the ongoing political and security crisis. read more CBE: Deposits in Local Currency Hit EGP 5.25 Trillion Morocco Plans to Spend $1 Billion to Mitigate Drought Effect Gov't Approves Final Version of State Ownership Policy Document Egypt's Economy Expected to Grow 5% by the end of 2022/23- Minister Qatar Agrees to Supply Germany with LNG for 15 Years Business Oil Prices Descend amid Anticipation of Additional US Strategic Petroleum Reserves Business Suez Canal Records $704 Million, Historically Highest Monthly Revenue Business Egypt's Stock Exchange Earns EGP 4.9 Billion on Tuesday Business Wheat delivery season commences on April 15 News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters Arts & Culture "Jurassic World Rebirth" Gets Streaming Date News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia Business Egyptian Pound Undervalued by 30%, Says Goldman Sachs Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Arts & Culture South Korean Actress Kang Seo-ha Dies at 31 after Cancer Battle Arts & Culture Lebanese Media: Fayrouz Collapses after Death of Ziad Rahbani Sports Get to Know 2025 WWE Evolution Results
Daily Maverick
22-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
Israel's striking economic boom is fuelled by war and built on injustice
Here's a grim reality: if you had invested in the Israeli stock index on October 7, 2023 — the day of Hamas' deadly attack on Israel — you would now be enjoying the best financial return of any major equity market in the world. Since then, as Israel has systematically flattened Gaza in a devastating campaign that has killed tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of civilians and displaced millions, openly committing gross human rights violations in the process, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has soared. By July 2025 the index was up almost 80% in dollar terms, buoyed by both domestic retail investors and foreign capital. Yet this is not an anomaly — it is a feature of the system. As UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese outlines in her brave report 'From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide', Israel's economy is not just surviving amid conflict — it is thriving because of it. The rampage unleashed by Netanyahu's government has been good for business in Israel. The occupation of Palestinian territory is deeply interwoven with corporate interests. Illegal settlements fuel a real estate boom. Military technologies developed through decades of occupation and surveillance are exported globally. Profits are being made from the devastation of Gaza. Those same ruins now promise lucrative reconstruction contracts, once the forced removal of Palestinians is complete. Meanwhile, little appears in the mainstream financial media critical of this brutal Military/Tech/Industrial complex. Instead, commentators like Ruchir Sharma in the Financial Times marvel at its 'economic miracle', and firmly state that Israel is 'winning', while pointing out its scale of research and development spending and rate of productivity growth. On such metrics, of course, they are right. Israel ranks third for companies in the field of generative AI. Its productivity growth outpaces most other developed economies. GDP per capita has tripled since 2000, surpassing $55,000 (about R956,000) — more than Germany and approaching that of the US. But there are two problems with this reading. First, stock markets are never gauges of justice or legitimacy; they are short-term estimates of future profit streams, regardless of what odious activities occur or the context from which those may be generated. The TA-125 index is small, concentrated and heavily skewed to bank, insurance and finance stocks that have benefited from wartime interest rates and a hot domestic tech economy. Other large components are tech AI company Nova, as well as the now infamous Elbit Systems, which manufactures the attack drones, tanks and bulldozers that have flattened Gaza. Narrow bull market It looks like a narrow bull market, and not a more sustainable grind ever higher. The Tel Aviv outperformance may well not last. Israel's bond markets are already flashing warning signs. Credit rating agencies Moody's, S&P and Fitch downgraded its credit rating in 2024, and all have the sovereign on negative outlooks. But there is a second, and more fundamental issue with this reading that a strong stock market and resilient economy in some way means that Israel is 'winning'. As Albanese points out, Israeli economic statistics cannot be seen independently of the violence that underpins them. The same state that supports world-leading tech innovation is also engaged in systematic and unrelenting human rights abuses, from collective punishment in Gaza to apartheid in the West Bank. The same government celebrating a record number of initial public offerings is also facing allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Israel's economic success story is not despite its militaristic belligerence. It is, in many cases, because of it. These contradictions play out, on a structural level, across the country's riven political economy. Israel today is not simply a divided society — it is increasingly an incoherent, socially unsustainable one. Five elections between 2018 and 2022 have failed to resolve deep tensions between dwindling numbers of largely tech sector secular liberals, ultra-Orthodox Jews who refuse to participate in military service, Zionist nationalists of the ilk of Netanyahu, and systemically marginalised Arabs. The mainstream of Israeli political consensus has therefore moved sharply towards the extreme right. Polls now show that a growing majority of Israeli Jews oppose the formation of a Palestinian state and support the expulsion of Palestinians altogether, both from occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza, and the deportation of Arab-Israeli citizens. This is not a fringe view, it is increasingly the political centre. For decades the idea of a two-state solution served as a way of resolving the contradiction of a supposedly law-abiding democracy committing illiberal, illegal acts. It was a kind of diplomatic placeholder; while never realised, the illusion at least maintained hope and a semblance of legitimacy. That fantasy has evaporated. The West Bank has been Balkanised and largely annexed through settlements. Gaza has been levelled. Mass starvation has been inflicted; food and humanitarian aid have been instrumentalised as weapons of war. The dream of peaceful cohabitation has been buried beneath bulldozed homes and schools, and the growing sense that Jewish sovereignty is equivalent to Palestinian erasure. No return to the 'old' Israel Many in the international community lay the blame squarely on Benjamin Netanyahu. But like Trump in the US, Netanyahu is not the root of the problem. He is a product of the system. He reflects, rather than drives, the will of a large segment of Israeli society. His eventual departure, whenever that may be, will not reverse the current trajectory. There will be no return to the 'old' Israel that liberals nostalgically evoke. That there is widespread anger at Netanyahu in Israel is true. That those angry at Netanyahu want his successor to seek a Palestinian state, or even Palestinian rights, is false. What does the future Israel look like? How will Israel's future be affected by its genocidal actions and the inevitable demolition of its incontestable morality, derived from its birth in the ashes of the Holocaust? Israel's founding promise was born out of unimaginable trauma. For much of the international community, especially those Europeans living in the shadow of a genocide, the state was a moral necessity. But that moral obligation cannot exist alongside the permanent subjugation and expulsion of other people. Israel cannot be both a rogue Jewish supremacist oppressor and a democracy. Its political leadership and citizenry must choose which one it will be. One potentially viable future is where land is shared, in some way — either through two states, one state, or a type of confederation — and in which equal rights are guaranteed for all who live between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean. But that future is not currently on offer, and there is little pressure — either domestically or internationally — to force the issue. Absent that, Israel will drift toward a full-fledged apartheid state, increasingly authoritarian at home and in the Middle East, and increasingly isolated abroad. That the markets are still bullish, and the economy resilient, should not give us cause to reassess. History is full of states, like apartheid South Africa, that prospered economically while being corrupted morally. None endured indefinitely. DM
Reuters
20-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Israel eyes changing CPI publication to before markets open
JERUSALEM, July 20 (Reuters) - Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday it was considering moving up publication of its monthly consumer price index (CPI) to before financial markets open partly in a bid to boost trading activity. The bureau currently publishes the CPI, a key measure of inflation that is also used for determining cost-of-living adjustments for wages and in central bank interest rate decisions, after markets close at 6:30 p.m. local time, usually on the 15th of the month when the date does not coincide with Saturday. It said that the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange requested the change in publication permanently to 10 a.m. on the 15th, just as stock and bond markets are opening and similar to that of many Western countries. Other options are also being considered but the bureau did not elaborate. The bureau has asked for public comment until August 1. Pushing up the CPI publication would, it said, expand trading opportunities in CPI derivatives, bonds and Treasury bills during trading hours, as well as allow for direct market reaction and analysis of the CPI without "offsetting events between post-market publication and the next trading day."
CNBC
18-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Israel's stock market outperforms Middle East counterparts despite multi-front wars
Israel's stock market is at a record high and has seen the greatest gains of any country in the Middle East over the 22 months of war that began on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has been waging multi-front wars, sustaining the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops that would ordinarily be part of the workforce, it's currently facing charges of war crimes in international courts, all while grappling with a large protest movement and political turmoil at home. Despite this, its economic landscape remains buoyant – lifted by significant foreign investment and more recently by renewed investor confidence following its 12-day conflict with Iran. Initially dropping as much as 23% in the month following the October Hamas attack and Israel's declaration of war, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had rebounded to and exceeded pre-war levels by the first quarter of 2024. As of July 17, the TASE is up over 200% from its Oct. 2023 low. The country's GDP for the last quarter of 2023 shrank nearly 20%, following a deep contraction in private consumption and investment triggered by the war. The full year nonetheless finished with modest growth of 2%, and a further 1% GDP growth in 2024, driven mainly by government spending. In June of this year, the OECD forecast 4.9% growth in economic activity for Israel in 2026. "In 2024, about 161,000 new trading accounts were opened in the Israeli capital market," a July report published on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website stated. That figure represents a threefold jump in the number of accounts opened compared to 2023. The report added that the first half of 2025 saw a further 87,000 new trading accounts opened, some 33,000 of which were in investment houses. "The year 2023 was characterized by considerable uncertainty… However, already in 2024, a reversal of the trend could be identified: the public expanded its involvement in the capital market, opened trading accounts, and took advantage of the low price levels in TASE's indices to enter the local capital market, which also supported the high trading volumes," Hadar Romano, head of data at TASE, wrote in the report. Avi Hasson, CEO of Israel's Startup Nation Central, credited a number of factors for boosting investor confidence in Israel. "As a result of what has been happening in the past 22 months, global investors look at the Middle East now, and specifically at Israel, and say… 'The risks confronting Israel's security and economy are actually going down'," Hasson told CNBC's Access Middle East. In the last year, Israel has managed to significantly degrade the capabilities of its adversaries, particularly Lebanon's Hezbollah, and its June conflict with Iran – with the help of the U.S. – was widely seen as having dealt a significant blow to Tehran's abilities to harm the Jewish state. When investors "try to look at the fundamentals of the Israeli economy, and more specifically, the tech market, its dynamism, its capabilities, the baby boom, new company creation," Hasson said, "global investors and global companies are taking notice, when they try to imagine the Middle East. Not necessarily how it is today, but rather in the months and years to come." Israel's tech sector is to thank for much of the country's economic success. High-tech products and services make up 20% of Israel's GDP and 56% of its international exports, Hasson said, thanks in part to the government investing heavily into research and development. Since the start of the war, its defense sector has gained further attention from foreign countries, even in the Arab world – one visible example being the robust presence of Israeli defense firms at Abu Dhabi's IDEX defense exhibition in February of this year. Foreign investment has also played a major part in the boost to Israel's stock market and real estate sector. In May of this year alone, foreign investors bought approximately 2.5 billion shekels ($743 million) in TASE shares, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet. Since the start of 2025, it reported, total foreign acquisitions have reached roughly 9.1 billion shekels, or $2.7 billion. And according to Israel's central bank, outstanding liabilities to foreign investors "increased by approximately $27.5 billion (about 5.2 percent) in the fourth quarter, to about $554 billion at the end of the quarter." That increase, the bank said, "was primarily due to a combination of an increase in the prices of Israeli securities held by nonresidents and the continued flow of net investments in Israel by nonresidents." The Israeli shekel, meanwhile, has gained nearly 7% against the U.S. dollar following the Israel-Iran conflict in June, while S&P Global Market Intelligence expects price inflation in the country to fall within the central bank's target rate by the third quarter 2025, likely paving the way for further monetary easing.
IOL News
07-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
UN report highlights the economic impact of the occupation of Palestine
The findings, presented by Francesca Albanese - the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian - during a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, accuse these corporations of failing to uphold their legal responsibilities, thereby facilitating a system of exploitative occupation. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has seen a staggering increase of over 200% since the onset of the occupation of Palestine nearly two years ago, according to a damning new report from Francesca Albanese, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. Published on Thursday and aptly titled 'From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,' Albanese's report highlights how the very fabric of the global economy has intertwined with the devastation faced by Palestinians, particularly in the face of the ongoing conflict. 'In the past 21 months, while Israel's genocide has devastated Palestinian lives and landscapes, the Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213%, amassing $225.7 billion in market gains—including $67.8bn in the past month alone. For some, genocide is profitable,' Albanese said. 'In many respects, I could have written this report two years ago, and it would have been a fair exposure of the economy of the occupation made of two pillars; a pillar of displacement, a pillar of replacement, held together by an ecosystem of enablers, from financial actors to institutional knowledge production actors, like universities, and even charities.' Albanese named defense giants Lockheed Martin, RTX Corporation, General Dynamics, BAE Systems and Boeing for their sale of weapons to Israel. She singled out Caterpillar, Hyundai and Volvo for selling engineering equipment used to demolish Palestinian homes and the construction of illegal colonies for at least 10 years. Also mentioned is German Heidelberg Materials AG through its subsidiary Hanson Israel for allegedly contributing to the pillage of millions of tons of dolomite rock from the Nahal Raba quarry on land seized from Palestinian villages in the West Bank. The report said the Spanish/Basque Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles joined a consortium to maintain and expand the Jerusalem Light Rail Red Line and build the new Green Line, at a time when other companies had withdrawn owing to international pressure. The global real estate group, Keller Williams Realty LLC, through its Israeli franchisee KW Israel, was named among real estate companies that sell properties in colonies to Israeli and international buyers. Global tech giants Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Palantir were also named for supplying AI platforms, analytics and cloud infrastructure that aid Israeli intelligence gathering. The report pointed at major banks — Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays — for investing in Israeli bonds, allowing Israel to wage war. It said the US-based Chevron Corporation, in consortium with Israeli NewMed Energy, extracts natural gas from the Leviathan and Tamar fields. The report said Chevron's consortium supplies more than 70% of Israeli energy consumption and also profits from its part-ownership of the East Mediterranean Gas pipeline, which passes through Palestinian maritime territory, and from gas export sales to Egypt and Jordan. The report also said Netafim, a global leader in drip irrigation technology, now 80% owned by the Mexican company Orbia Advance Corporation, has designed its agritech in concert with the expansion imperatives of Israel. It said global logistics giants like A.P. Moller – Maersk A/S were integral to this ecosystem; for years they have shipped goods from the colonies and OHCHR database-listed companies straight to the US and other markets. The report said major online travel platforms, used by millions to reserve accommodation, profit from the occupation by selling tourism that sustains the colonies, excludes Palestinians, promotes settler narratives and legitimizes annexation. It said Booking Holdings Inc. and Airbnb, Inc. list properties and hotel rooms in Israeli colonies. has more than doubled its listings in the West Bank – from 26 in 2018 to 70 by May 2023 – and tripled its East Jerusalem listings to 39 in the year post October 2023. Airbnb has also amplified its colonial profiteering, growing from 139 listings in 2016 to 350 in 2025, collecting up to 23% commission. It said these listings were linked with restricting Palestinian access to land and endangering nearby villages. 'My report exposes a system, something that is so structural and so widespread and so systemic that there is no possibility to fix it and redress it. It needs to be dismantled,' Albanese said. 'When sanctions were imposed on apartheid South Africa, was it because of the crimes and the violence and the racism and the discrimination and the apartheid that South Africa was imposing on its non-white population or for just what South Africa was doing in the Bantustans?' In a sharp rebuttal, Maram Stern, executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, denounced Albanese's report as biased and politicised, claiming it undermined Israel's legitimacy and distorted the realities on the ground. 'Ms. Albanese's report is yet another example of her repeated misuse of her mandate to advance a political agenda rather than to uphold the universal principles of human rights,' Stern said in a statement. 'Particularly outrageous is the targeting of companies operating within Israel's internationally recognized borders, which is a clear attempt to delegitimize the very existence of the Jewish state under the guise of human rights.' BUSINESS REPORT
