The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange continues to decline as Israel threatens to respond to Iran

Israel – The main Tel Aviv Stock Exchange index (TASI 35) fell by 0.13% to 1911.88 points on the impact of Israel’s pledge to respond to Iran’s attacks, for the second day in a row.

Bank Leumi shares declined in today’s trading by 1.15% to 2.83 shekels ($0.75), and Bank Hapoalim shares declined by a similar percentage to 3.22 shekels ($0.86).

Al-Bayt System for Defense Industries shares fell 0.73% to 75.87 shekels ($20.22).

Yesterday, the main Tel Aviv Stock Exchange index fell by 1.23% to 1,914.43 points, and the corporate bond index fell by 0.24% to 376.14 points.

It is noteworthy that the Governor of the Bank of Israel (Central Bank), Amir Yaron, said in statements the day before yesterday that the situation between Israel and Iran raised a state of geopolitical uncertainty, so bond yields and credit default swaps (the risk premium on government bonds) increased, and the shekel exchange rate was also affected, so The rate was fixed at the last monetary policy meeting, he told the Israeli business newspaper Globes.

The Israeli War Council ended its meeting devoted to discussing a possible response to the Iranian attack that targeted Israel two days ago, in light of reports expecting an Israeli response soon.

No statement was issued regarding the government meeting on Monday, and Israeli media said that the War Council is holding another meeting today to continue examining available options, and the sources spoke of moving towards adopting the option of a limited attack on a facility inside Iran.

For its part, the newspaper “Israel Today” reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a meeting with opposition leaders to inform them of developments regarding the Iranian attack.

Government spokesman Avi Heyman told the American channel MSNBC that Israel reserves its right to self-defense following the Iranian attack.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was affected by political tensions in the region

In the context of the Israeli economy, annual Israeli inflation rose to 2.7% at the end of March from 2.5% at the end of the previous February, according to figures issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics yesterday, partly reported by the Israeli newspaper Globes.

In this regard, Yaron said that since the outbreak of the war (on the Gaza Strip), the Bank of Israel has followed a policy that includes achieving market stability, while seeking to bring inflation to the target range, adding: “I have warned in the past that if the security situation escalates, we will emphasize stability.” Not normalization,” he said, referring to the interest rate reduction policy.