TASE sheds hefty 2.4% Wednesday morning
Tel Aviv stocks opened off 2.4% Wednesday morning as investors began to digest treasury plans to impose capital gains tax.
Finance Ministry Director General Ohad Marani on Monday hinted on Israel Radio that the ministry may impose a capital gains tax as part of the emergency economic plan. It has also been leaked that the Rabinovich tax reform committee is planning to recommend imposing 15% to 25% tax on capital gains from the stock exchange and savings plans.
The negative mood is also attributed to a potential sharp hike in lending rates, and to continuing sharp drops on Wall Street where Nasdaq dropped 1.6% and Dow Jones closed off 0.5% Tuesday.
The Maof-25 blue chip index is off 2.4% to 388.0 points, the TA-100 index is off 2.2% to 374.9 points, and technology shares are down 2.5%. Total turnover is strong for this hour at NIS 30 million.
Banks shares are sliding, with Bank Hapoalim off 2.4% on NIS 2 million volume, Bank Leumi down 2.9%, and Bank Discount off 2.2%. It was reported today that debt-burdened cable TV firm Tevel is likely to ask the banks to write off debt of hundreds of millions of shekels. In 2001, the banks made provisions worth hundreds of millions of shekels for the communications sector. On Tuesday, Tel Aviv District Court granted Tevel a two-month stay of liquidation proceedings.
Teva Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:TEVA) is down 0.7% on 1.2% negative arbitrage spread, attracting the session's biggest volume, NIS 5.5 million. Yesterday, Teva said its relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis treatment, Copaxone, is now available in "pre-filled, ready-to-use syringe."
