| March 07, 2007 ... Shalom. Beyond the limited media-resources available to spokeswoman Miri Eisin there is more to Israel than many outside of Israel will be familiar with, or probably not even aware of.
Israel is approximately the size of the north of the island of Ireland cut off at the 54th parallel, and has a population approximately triple to that area. There is tourism to a limited extent, not helped by the ongoing conflicts, of course, unless conflict-tourism takes off in a big way :-). But apart from that unlikely possibility, there is an interesting and exciting financial aspect to Israel, which is unknown to many. A key part of the financial success of Israel is the TASE (Tel Aviv Stock Exchange). 
The TASE is the only stock exchange in Israel. It moved to its current Tel Aviv site after 1983. At the time of this writing, the TASE lists in excess of 660 companies, has a daily turnover in excess of €230-million and has a total market cap in excess of €170-billion. Current stats are available directly from the TASE website. Shares trading occurs from Sunday until Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. ( GMT +2). This permits an hour's worth of overlap between the TASE and American markets. Various types of bonds and bills are traded between 9:30 a.m. and 4:50 p.m (GMT +2). And derivatives are traded from 9:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m (GMT +2). It is not unusual for many of the larger Israeli companies to be doubly listed on the TASE including the NASDAQ or the NYSE . Regulation of the TASE is conducted by the 1968 Securities Law including direct supervision by the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) . Four programs exist for companies wanting to be listed on the TASE: Three of these programs are for normal operating companies, and the fourth program is for technology based companies at the development-stage In addition to these four primary programs,, the TASE includes a program for listing Limited Partnership Units. And the TASE permits the dual listing of any company accepted for trading on the NASDAQ , NYSE , AMEX , or LSE . To facilitate this arrangement, the TASE is directly linked to the US markets through a subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTC). So it's not all the doom-and-gloom that so many would have us believe. Maybe it's time to give serious consderation to living and working in Israel. One of those very nice international-style (Bauhaus) appartments avalable in Tel Aviv looks good. |
