Banks and chips pushed the indices; successful debut for Palo Alto
The TA-35 index climbed by about 1% while the TA-90 index continues to lag behind in the shadow of weakness in real estate stocks. Tower surged by 9% and led the chip gains, and Palo Alto rose by about 3% on its first day in the local indices. Towards next week: the market is waiting for the US employment report and is preparing for a step up in the local earnings season.
The trading day on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed with gains, led by the banking and technology sectors. The flagship TA-35 index strengthened by 0.98%, while the TA-125 index added 0.82%. Trading volume in stocks was active, amounting to approximately 2.1 billion shekels.
The TA-90 index continues to lag, settling today for a moderate rise of 0.37%. It remains the only flagship index to have finished the week in negative territory and the only one showing a negative return year-to-date. The main drag on the index comes from the real estate sector: TA-Construction stocks fell by 0.7%, following a 0.75% decline recorded yesterday by the TA-Income Producing Real Estate Israel index.
At the sectoral level, the TA-Banks 5 index (equal weight) led the positive trend with a rise of 1.43%, alongside the TA-Technology index, which climbed by 1.32%. Conversely, the TA-Insurance index fell by 0.84%.
A key highlight was the historic entry of cybersecurity giant Palo Alto into the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange indices. The stock successfully completed its first trading day with a rise of 3.08% and concentrated a trading volume of approximately 57 million shekels.
Technology gains were led by chip stocks, headed by Tower, which surged by 9.08%, and Camtek, which added 4.6%. Other notable rises in the TA-125 index were recorded in Ampa (+5.02%), Danel (+4.8%), and Max Stock (+4.8%). On the downside, Wisor Globaltech lost 4.24%, Israel Canada fell by 3.95%, and Generation Capital shed 3.5%.
Investors are now looking overseas ahead of the US employment report for July. Forecasts point to the addition of approximately 80,000 non-farm jobs, a 4.2% unemployment rate, and a 3.5% annual wage increase. These figures will have a critical impact on the Federal Reserve's upcoming interest rate decision, with the market currently pricing in a 57% probability of a hike.
In the foreign exchange market, the shekel demonstrated stability, with the dollar trading around 3.00 shekels and the euro around 3.46 shekels. Trading volume in government bonds reached approximately 1.9 billion shekels, while corporate bonds saw 420 million shekels in volume.
