TASE benchmarks rose 5% in 5772

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-25 and TA-100 rose by about 5 percent in the Jewish year 5772, rebounding from the previous year’s fall of 6%, the TASE announced Wednesday in an annual review.

Share-market turnover decreased significantly in the past year, but bond-market turnover increased. There was a slowdown in raising of capital in both the share and bond markets. There was one IPO and two newly dual-listed companies.

The TASE listed several highlights, including the May release of three new indexes that were introduced to improve the liquidity of bonds: Tel Bond CPI-linked Index, Tel Bond CPI-linked Small Cap Index and Tel Bond CPI-linked Banks Index.

The value of the TA-25 and TA-100 actually decreased by 3% in dollar terms in 5772, similar to the previous year’s figures, at a time when stocks in most developed countries rose by 10%-30%, the TASE said. However, despite the relatively poor performance of the last two years, the TA- 25 has produced a 95% return since 2005, a stronger performance than those of the Nasdaq 100, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, 225 Nikkei, FTSE 100 and other leading indexes, it said.

The greatest global challenges of the past year, the TASE said, were: the European credit crisis and downgrading of credit ratings of developed economies and leading European banks; the Arab Spring. The greatest domestic challenges were: rising unemployment; the expanding government deficit; the Knesset’s approval of tax hikes and expenditure cuts; the strengthening (by 7.7%) of the dollar against the shekel.

On the other hand, it listed a number of positive influences on the TASE, including the success of the Nasdaq and other leading stock exchanges around the world and strong domestic economic growth.