Israel stocks up; Frutarom in Danish deal; Teva wins ruling
By Robert Daniel, MarketWatch
TEL AVIV - Israel stocks jumped sharply and broadly on Sunday with particular strength in the financials and the real estate issues.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's benchmark TA-25 Index closed up 2.17% to 850.78, while the TA-100 Index rose 2.58% to 791.81.
The Tel-Tech 15 Index of top technology issues climbed 2.62% to 187.30.
And the Finance 15 Index added 3.50% to 776.04.
The most-active issue was Israel Chemicals, the fertilizer producer, trading up 2.9%. Parent holding company Israel Corp. jumped 5.1%.
The banks were strong among the blue chips, with Discount up 4.7%, Leumi rising 3.7%, Mizrahi Tefahot 2.2% ahead, and Hapoalim tacking on 1.6%. Union Bank lifted 3.8%. First International added 1.2%.
Among the insurers, Clal added 6.9%, Migdal moved up 1.2%, and Phoenix rose 2%.
The telecom connection was clear, with investors pushing up Bezeq, the provider of fixed-line and telephone-brand cellular service, by 1.9%, Cellcom, the country's top provider of cellular service, by 0.5%, and Partner, the Israeli affiliate of the Orange cellular network, by 2.7%.
Within the TA-25, two issues lost ground: real estate developer Gazit Globe, edging down 0.8%, and drugmaker Perrigo, down 0.7%.
Teva Pharmaceutical added 0.6%. The company said on Thursday that it won a summary judgment that it did not infringe a patent tied to the Sanofi-Aventis chemotherapy medication Eloxatin. The patent is held by Debiopharm, the Lausanne, Switzerland, biopharma group.
Teva said it would inform the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the ruling and expects to gain clearance for its new-drug application for a generic version shortly.
Elsewhere in real estate, Africa-Israel Investments and Alony Hetz leaped 6.5% and 6.2% respectively, Elbit Imaging, which also has medical-equipment interests, rose 7%, and Jerusalem Economic soared more than 10%.
The Real Estate 15 Index jumped 4.78% to 254.74.
Frutarom, the TA-100-traded maker of flavors and fragrances, rose 3%. The company said on Sunday that it agreed to pay $7.3 million for the savory operations of Chr. Hansen, the Horsholm, Denmark, producer of ingredients for food, pharmaceuticals, nutrition and agriculture.
In technology, Gilat shares added 5.3%. The Israeli daily Globes reported, without citing sources, that the producer of satellite-based communications networks is in preliminary talks to acquire Airspan Networks Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla., producer of wireless-broadband equipment.
Airspan, traded on the pink sheets, has a market capitalization of more than $5 million. On Friday the stock rose 2 cents, or 21%, to 9 cents a share.
Airspan competes with Alvarion, the producer of wireless broadband networks, Globes reported. Alvarion shares shed 2.1%.
Strong in tech were Nice Systems, the provider of digital recording and archiving equipment, up 3.4%, and Radvision, the videoconferencing specialist, up 6.3%.