Tech stocks strong in dull Sunday mid-day session

Tel Aviv tech stocks are striding ahead while blue chips hover at a gain of about 0.5% at Sunday mid-day. Traders explaining the gains despite the bomb attack in Haifa this morning, in which 31 people were mildly wounded, say there just aren't any sellers.

Stocks picked up at mid-morning after starting with a slight slump, attributed to Friday losses on Wall Street.

The Maof-25 and TA-100 indices are both rising 0.5%. Total turnover is thin at NIS 50 million.

Engineering firm Baran is up 3.4% after announcing a memorandum of understanding to acquire a U.S. communications firm for $14.4 million. The American firm is expected to post sales of $30 million for 2001.

Agrochemicals firm Makhteshim Agan Industries is down 1.1%, after gains last week following its notes offering.

Lipman Electronic Engineering is rising 5.3% on NIS 1.6 million turnover after announcing a four-year $20 million deal with an American company.

Teva Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:TEVA) is down 1.8% on the session's biggest turnover, NIS 10.5 million, after starting on a negative arbitrage gap of 2.3%.

Metalink (Nasdaq:MTLK) is leaping 31.3% after starting with a 19% arbitrage spread with Nasdaq.

AudioCodes (Nasdaq:AUDC) is rising 16.9% after starting on an even wider arbitrage gap.

Formula Systems (Nasdaq:FORTY) is down 1.7%, and Elbit Systems (Nasdaq:ESLT) is off 1.4%.